Daan Muller

Being new to bonsai I am very eagerly reading up, following internet and trying to grow myself some bonsai tree's of course.

One thing intrigues me, it seems bonsai is more of a sport than a hobby or an art to a some people.

They train their trees to enter them in to competitions. Their trees are judged according a set of rules and maybe they win a price. To me this sums up a sport, not an art. This sport might have some artistic sides to it but so does figure-skating.

In Japan they have taken this one step further already. Trees are a sort of athletes in the bonsai arena. The owners of these tree's don't tend to them themselves. The trees are looked after by caretakers in nursery's and when the owner wants to show off it's tree it tells the caretaker to make it ready for the show. I know of a few other sports that work this way, horse-racing for example.

This doesn't sound like art to me. I know of no other art where one competes in this way. How can art be judged following a set of rules? What might be art to me may seem junk to the next person, such is the nature of a lot of art. Vincent van Gogh couldn't sell more than one painting in his lifetime. His art wasn't recognized as art then. If he would have entered his paintings in a competition he wouldn't have won a thing.

For me bonsai is a nice way to relax. I find joy and wonder in the way these trees grow. It thrills me to see new growth appearing after I have cut back a tree. And I find them pleasing to the eye. Who knows, somewhere in the (distant) future someone might find one my trees art. That would be neat.

What is bonsai to you? A nice hobby, an art or sport?

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