Poll: Japanese Terms, How useful?

Hawthorn

Bwahahahaha!! They are little bonsai trees!! hahaha

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Nicsai

(Blush!)

ElGringo

Like frogs!

Do frogs usually come with a little blue pot?

Some might say they're 'cute'.

I wouldn't say that Japanese terms are essential, although it is easier to type 'nebari' rather than 'surface roots'.

What confuses me is when people invent terms such as 'octopus style' when they really mean exposed root (istusuki? something like that?) or banyan (which is a hindi word) styles.

Nihongo hanashimasen

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Richard

Wales= RBS 6 nations champions 2008!!!!!

zen

They're not frogs, they're bonsai-emoticons or "bonticons" or "emoticosai". There's you a couple of Japanese-ized terms.
I voted that Japanese terms can or should be used,...As I think that some things just don't translate to single word, and would have to be explained, but everyone having an understanding of these terms makes communication easier, within the field.

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"Although profoundly "inconsequential," the Zen experience has consequences in the sense that it may be applied in any direction, to any conceivable human activity, and that wherever it is so applied it lends an unmistakable quality to the work."

~ Alan Watts (1915-1973)

http://www.bonsaiswap.com/

bonsaial1

I have a Japanese teacher, so I have no choice. He translates all my pots, Japanese , Chinese and Korean and I teach him english when needed. He also told me one time when I had used a particularly striking scroll with bright red flowers and birds in April that the Kanji on the scroll depicted a fall season.

Thats what I get for using the scroll without asking first!

Cheers, Al

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It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

Robert

Language is for the purpose of communication; use what works best. There are lots of Japanese terms for which there is no "exact" equalivent (sp) in English, so in those instances, certainly the Japanese word is more appropriate. On the other hand, there are many terms for which the English is the simplest and most accurate definition, and to insist on using the Japanese terms can get a bit stifling, so I think it has a lot to do with "your style", and your purpose.

Robert .. in Santa Cruz

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Robert.........in Sta.Cruz

Robert

Incidentally, I didn't vote because I didn't like the options.
I would vote for using Japanese terms or English terms, whichever is the most succinct and accurate.
Robert ... in Santa Cruz

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Robert.........in Sta.Cruz

pup

The word Bonsai is Japanese. I smile when I see the comment that Chinese invented Bonsai.
In the Meiji period the Emperor did not like the Chinese word Punsai or Penjing.
He decreed that the word Bonsai be used to describe miniture trees,
So when we talk of Bonsai we are not talking Penjing.

So to use Japanese terms we are talking Bonsai.
However if you belong to a club that uses both forms of the art.
Then it is better to use both forms of communication. IMHO Pup

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PUP
Advanced begginner


Heatzone USA9/10
Aus 3/4

Glider

I don't think it's strictly necessary to use Japanese terms, but i do think some of them, with frequent use, have come to describe certain concepts better than the English equivalents (more by association than literal translation).

For example, 'surface roots' in English is very literal and, at least to my mind, doesn't really convey the concept of 'powerfully grasping the soil like a lion's paw' that 'nebari' does. I know that's not what nebari translates as, but it is what the word has come to evoke in my mind.

It's the same for 'jin' which evokes more in my mind than 'dead branch', and 'sharimiki', which, again, in my mind, conveys more than 'driftwood' or 'dead trunk'.

To me, these terms evoke more than their literal translation, and that's probably because I don't speak Japanese and so don't know what the literal translations are. So, for me, I think they have a use in bonsai, but that's just a personal thing and so is subject to my own meaning and interpretations.

For example, I'll use 'surface roots' when I'm talking about development and processes (i.e. things I'm doing to improve their form), but once the work is done and it's all looking good, it becomes a 'nebari'. That is, nebari in my mind, has become a 'state' or stage of development; something to aim for rather than just a name for surface roots.

But, as I say, that's just me.

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