Your Opinion of sumo style

Bonsai Barry

I'll admit, I have difficulty appreciating sumo style bonsai. I'm trying to learn what it is that people most appreciate in this style.

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Bonsai Barry

"Our talent lies in our choices."

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guffmeister

I love sumo style!!! I just think they look so powerful. They don't really look like a real trees though I admit. I like the idea of having such a stout, powerful tree, perhaps only 4 times taller than it is wide, sitting on my palm to admire.

Bonsai Barry

Oops, I guess I should have added an option:


"I don't care for this style."

Sorry. If you feel this way, please speak out.

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Bonsai Barry

"Our talent lies in our choices."

mike_p

I voted other. I would have voted none of the above if the option had been available.
I've been practicing sumo style for many years, and while I may not have coined the term originally, I did start using it out of my own imagination as it related to the style, and was the first to get it into print in 1998. Oddly enough, my other favorite style is bunjin. Diametric opposites. One of the reasons I like sumo is the great power it conveys to the viewer in a relativly small package.
The link is to an article in ABS Journal on sumo shohin.
http://www.absbonsai.org/articles/sumo.html

Mike

P.S. the image is a sumo olive. This tree is one of the bonsai that started me on the sumo kick about 14-15 years ago.

Attached Images

bigsumo_01_06repot.jpg (66.8 KB, 93 views)

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Learning the mechanics of bonsai is a matter of rote. Over and over again the processes are practiced until the hands and eyes know the moves.
Learning the art of bonsai may be more like water wearing away a stone, or climbing a mountain where the peak is always shrouded in fog and just out of reach.
Persist, and someday you may see the peak in sunshine. You may pick up the stone and it's a thing of beauty.

MP@BBB Studio

Treebeard

BB,

I voted for the top option, they remind me of trees in nature. Around here, there are hundreds of sumo oaks and beeches. Many of them are fatter than they are tall, many of them are hollow, all are fascinating.

It is purely that I admire them in nature so much that I like them in bonsai form. They convey a sense of power, age, might, and history. It's this last thing that I'm currently fascinated with.

Some examples of sumos locally...

Regards,

Chris.

Attached Images

	DSC00509.jpg (61.8 KB, 95 views)
	DSC-W1_094.jpg (56.4 KB, 82 views)
	major.jpg (56.9 KB, 91 views)
	Untitled-2.jpg (58.0 KB, 82 views)

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mike_p

Chris, GREAT TREES!!! Thanks for posting.

Mike

__________________
Learning the mechanics of bonsai is a matter of rote. Over and over again the processes are practiced until the hands and eyes know the moves.
Learning the art of bonsai may be more like water wearing away a stone, or climbing a mountain where the peak is always shrouded in fog and just out of reach.
Persist, and someday you may see the peak in sunshine. You may pick up the stone and it's a thing of beauty.

MP@BBB Studio

Aaron_K

I like sumo's for the powerful feeling that the trunk conveys. If you've ever stood underneath a 300ft+ sequoia and looked upwards...you'll know what I mean lol.

All the best,

Aaron

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Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Muriel Strode

Vulpes pilum mutat, non mores!

"A fox may change its skin but never its character"

Bonsai Barry

Mike_P, thanks for those examples in nature. Can't argue with the photos, they speak for themselves.

Aaron, I can't agree with your example of giant sequoia. I work in a sequoia grove, so I spend a lot of time gazing at them. Even with their massive presense, they still aren't sumo. Sumo exceed the 1:6 ration of girth and height by their huge width. Seqouia on the other hand, with a trunk of 30 ft (28 m) and and height of 300 (96 m)feet have a 1:10 ratio. Furthermore, they are more column-like without a lot of taper. I have seen a fair number of sumo sequoia bonsai. They are interesting but they would never be mistaken as a mature tree in nature. My avitar is a "natural" sequoia bonsai (the drawing is based on several trees, mostly from the Pacific Rim collection. I'll confess I exaggerated the taper in the drawing).

Thanks for the discussion.

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Bonsai Barry

"Our talent lies in our choices."

Aaron_K

Hi Barry,

I agree that the ratios of height to girth aren't representative of a sumo, which wasn't what I was trying to convey, although in hindsight I suppose it wasn't the best example to use lol. What I meant was the feeling one gets when standing directly under one of those 300ft trees. The sheer size and mass of them, are incredibly powerful, at least they were to me (we don't get too many 300ft trees here in England ). Its that power which is reflective in sumo bonsai - even if the aspect ratios aren't.... if that makes sense?

Chris those are some awesome pics. Isn't that last one the Major Oak of Sherwood Forest?

All the best,

Aaron

**edit** sorry 3rd pic is Major Oak

__________________
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Muriel Strode

Vulpes pilum mutat, non mores!

"A fox may change its skin but never its character"