Several months ago, during a very interesting thread on the subject of "Bonsai Art", Walter Pall, who is not only a great Bonsai artist but also a very smart guy with a whole lot of common sense, made a remark directed at yours truly regarding the impact of what he called "Oriental hocus-pocus" on Bonsai appreciation. Now, at the time, I did not take offense at Walter's remark; in fact, at the time, I thought he made a very good point, even though it certainly did not support the point I was making.

I have thought alot about his comment since then and yesterday a bell went off in my head when I connected what he said with another point I made recently in another thread regarding de-mystifying Bonsai.

I have found a whole lot of folks in the West do not like the connection of Bonsai with a lot of Japanese and other Eastern religious and cultural values AT ALL. It's not hard at all to get many Western Bonsai enthusiasts up on their soap boxes at the merest hint that Bonsai is a JAPANESE art form and comes inextricably bound up with Japanese sensibilities, religious values and cultural sensibilities. A position I have long adhered to.

Wellll...........I think I'm coming to see the light and to have more appreciation for Walter's point.

HOWEVER!!!!

At the same time, I'm starting to think that something just as bad is happening in the West: The increasing "mystification" of Bonsai with a heavy overlay of complexity which results from thinking about Bonsai within the framework of Western art traditions.

Bonsai is really pretty simple and most people with a minimal amount of horticultual ability and an interest in learning some basic techniques and design principles should be able to master it. It's no more difficult than many things that ordinary people master. Now, just as in most areas of life, different people have different levels of ability. Just as most people can learn to play Baseball, but very few can develop into a Hank Arron, most people can do Bonsai at a level high enough to derive great enjoyment from it and develop trees that will please their families and neighbors.

Yes, there is plenty of Oriental as well as Western Hocus Pocus within the Bonsai Subculture, but it is something accompanying Bonsai, not what is essential in it. I think, myself, a whole lot more people might be attracted to Bonsai if it could be presented as, "Sure you can do this. It's not so hard!", rather than as some incredibly difficult artform that can be accomplished only by very special people with many years of experience in the most arcane of art specialties.

Which also happens to be the truth as I see it.

Best Regards, Fred

Hi Fred,

Yours was an interesting and disturbing post, depending on how one chooses to take it. I notice that you make absolutlely no distinction between growing bonsai, shaping bonsai and, most importantly, displaying bonsai. Do you not recognize these distinctions or do you merely hold that they're unimportant?

You write:
"At the same time, I'm starting to think that something just as bad is happening in the West: The increasing "mystification" of Bonsai with a heavy overlay of complexity which results from thinking about Bonsai within the framework of Western art traditions."

I don't begrudge your opinion that such things are bad, but I hope that you do realize that to the extent that artistic conventions are discussed about bonsai, there is nothing different between "Western art traditions" and Japanese bonsai styling/display conventions. We (they and us) both are using the same conventions to achieve the same results; we merely describe the reasons differently (or not at all - disguising these conventions as "rules"). You may view these Western explanations to be overly-complex, but they're part of what makes art art.

I think that many have no regard for the fact that growing bonsai for personal pleasure is one thing, and exhibiting bonsai as art for others' enjoyment is something entirely different. What satisfies the one activity does not necessarily address the other activity. An excellent bonsai that is "exhibited" by just putting it on a table is a bonsai that is poorly displayed. Greatly unappealing and lacking the beauty and impact as compared to a mediocre bonsai that is exhibited well so as to tell a story and bring the viewer into the "world of that tree."

However, there is, I believe, a vastly important element of the Japanese definition of bonsai that westerners are largely unconcerned about or merely ignorant of - that of the importance of wabi and sabi. A friend of mine who is a long-time practitioner of Japanese arts points out, as top Japanese artists also cite, that bonsai is diminished greatly without embodying wabi and sabi. These elements are what make the Japanese arts Japanese. Now that bonsai is, as is widely agreed, no longer a Japanese are, but rather a worldwide art, it is diminished because so few "artists" are concerned with or aware of of these essential qualities.

I suggest that if you do not understand wabi and sabi, you are missing much what makes bonsai so impactful and engrossing. I dislike using esoteric terms in describing art, preferring to use widely understood conventions, but I have to agree with my friend that without these Japanese "mystical, estoteric, complex" elements, bonsai is not only "not Japanese," it is also somewhat diminished.

Now, whether wabi and sabi are essential to merely the Japanese aesthetic or the "human" aesthetic is perhaps a matter for debate. But, though I say I dislike esoteric terms in discussing artistry, I use these basic Japanese terms now to help make a point - that if we're unfamiliar with the concepts embodied by these terms, maybe we're not so prepared to shoot down their necessity in our art. Just a thought.


Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.andyrutledge.com/palaver/main.htm
zone 8,Texas

Fred,
I suggest Leonard Koren's book on wabi sabi, it's very small but eye-opening book.

Andy,
I am very happy that you mentioned wabi sabi, a concept so important and yet almost never mentioned even by our japanese masters teaching in the U.S.

An interesting note in Andrew Juniper's book on wabi sabi is that this concept is so hard to be accurately defined in words that the Japanese would never attempt to do so.
The author goes on saying that wabi sabi in Japan is gradually displaced by the glitzy western style and although it may sound ironic, but the West may become the leading force to preserve this elusive concept from becoming extinct.

Regards,
Attila

Andy,

My teacher does not talk about wabi-sabi. However, he does say that we in the west have difficulty grasping that when designing a bonsai, the elements must work together, but always leaving room for a 'flaw'. A design element that works against perfection. I think that he is probably talking about the same thing.

Fish.

Reading this thread, I did an internet search on wabi-sabi. I would like to quote from an article found at www.art.unt.edu :

Since wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic system, it is difficult to explain precisely in western terms. According to Leonard Koren, wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it "occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West."
Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
It is the beauty of things modest and humble.
It is the beauty of things unconventional.
The concepts of wabi-sabi correlate with the concepts of Zen Buddhism, as the first Japanese involved with wabi-sabi were tea masters, priests, and monks who practiced Zen. Zen Buddhism originated in India, traveled to China in the 6th century, and was first introduced in Japan around the 12th century. Zen emphasizes "direct, intuitive insight into transcendental truth beyond all intellectual conception." At the core of wabi- sabi is the importance of transcending ways of looking and thinking about things/existence.
All things are impermanent
All things are imperfect
All things are incomplete

Material characteristics of wabi-sabi:
suggestion of natural process
irregular
intimate
unpretentious
earthy
simple

Guys! Wow! I am very excited to hear these comments. I was a little disappointed to get no response for awhile but these comments more than make up for it. I will defiinitely take a look at the material referenced on wab--sabi; your comments regarding it are the freshest, most interesting things I've heard about bonsai for quite awhile. It is totally new to me and verry stimulating!

Fred

I thought wabi-sabi was that green paste you put on sushi, who knew?

I appreciate the responses here. Just to put a bit of a finer point on the concepts (separate concepts), here's a bit of a specific primer:

Wabi: cultivated poverty, serenity, melancholy, loneliness
For instance, a simple shack in a quiet and secluded glade has wabi.

Sabi: imperminence, old, venerable, transitoriness
For instance, the incredibly old-looking bark and short-lived flowers of an Japanese plumb have sabi.

Generally, both qualities are expected to be used together, but it is good to know what's what when working with such esoteric terms.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsaitodayonline.com/
zone 8, Texas

I really have to agree with Fred! This has been a truly enlightening discussion of wabi and sabi. I have found it off-putting that so many enthusiasts use the words like technical jargon, unwilling or unable to explain what they mean when they use the terms.

Chris

Just for the heck of it, you might have a look at http://www.andyrutledge.com/palaver...es/wabisabi.htm and see if this is something you'd care to follow up on. FWIW.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.andyrutledge.com/palaver/main.htm
zone 8, Texas