Good Book For Advanced Bonsai Styling Techniques?

ninja

What is the best book for advanced styling techniques? I've been reading alot of reviews and searching on websites but all I've found have been things like; bonsai for beginners, techniques for beginners, how to care for your bonsai, etc.

What I'm looking for is a book that goes into depth about how to actually style a bonsai instead of just showing pictures of trees that have already been worked on.

Thanks for your replies in advance.

Edit: What is the best book that shows step by step of how to created a japanese garden ( I actually want a beginners book for this)

Advertisement

Carl_Bergstrom

I suppose we should distinguish between a few different types of "advanced" techniques. I'll list a few off-the-top-of-my-head picks for each.

1. Design and the artistic aspects of bonsai
   
   Dave DeGroot's book.
   Andy Rutledge's e-book
   Naka's book (esp. Volume II)
   
2. Advanced styling techniques and horticultural techniques.
   
   Bonsai Today articles
   
   Is there much else out there English? Plenty of books with example, I know, but are there many really good "how-to" books? (How to airlayer doesn't count as advanced.)
   
3. How to develop a material from stock taking a five to ten year perspective (minimum).
   
   Peter Adams' Bonsai Design: Japanse Maples, Bonsai Design: Deciduous and Conifereous Trees, and Art of Flowering Bonsai.
   
   Kyosuke Gun's Japanese-language books on mini-bonsai (One each for maples, black pine, Prunus mume, etc.)
   
4. Advanced display
   
   Willi Benz' Bonsai Kusamono Suiseki
   International Bonsai articles
   
5. Penjing / Landscape composition
   
   Saburo Kato's book
   Brook Zhao's book
   
6. Examples of mind-blowingly good specimen trees.
   
   Kokufu albums,
   Murata's Four Seasons of Bonsai
   

---

Best regards,
Carl

__________________
In love with trees

TreeBay

Don't forget the Masahiko Kimura books -

Magical Technician of Contemporary Bonsai or somesuch

Baby sleeps in the bonsai library

__________________

Want to be a seller on bonsaiAUCTIONS? Get authorized today!

bonsaiTALK: Over 100,005.36 Megabytes Served this Month!

GaryS

All the books that Carl and Matt suggested are the one's I would pick also.

My list for advanced Techniques would be:

1.)Bonsai Techniques ll by John Naka

2.)The Bonsai Art of Kimura by Stone Lantern Press

3.)Bonsai Today Magazine by Stone Lantern Press

4.)Bonsai Design-Japanese Maples and Bonsai Design-Deciduous and Coniferous Trees by Peter Adams

5.)Bonsai,The Art and Technique by Dorothy S. Young- it's more of a textbook. May be out of print.

There really aren't a lot of Advanced books out there!

I suppose if your that advanced you don't need too many books.

__________________
GaryS