About Bonsai

The literal translation of the Japanese word Bonsai (pronounced bone - sigh) is tray or dish planting. The origin of bonsai is traced back about 1,200 years to ancient China where ornamental dwarf trees and landscape scenes, arranged in ornate containers,were used by the nobility as courtyard decorations. The art was eventually adopted by the Japanese who embraced it with great vigor, and refined it to its present state.

Bonsai in America is a relatively recent import from Japan, and its cultivation here is directly influenced by Japanese rules and standards. There are presently, in the United States, several Bonsai masters of Japanese origin, and several Americans who have earned the right to be called “master”. You will get to meet many of these masters at our club and at state and national conventions.

An apt description of Bonsai is dwarfed trees. It is a tree or a group of trees that have been trained and developed by certain techniques from nursery stock, trees collected in the wild, or grown from cuttings, seed, or grafts into perfect miniatures of naturally growing trees – scale models, if you will.

Bonsai is a unique art form, in that it combines the science of horticulture, and the basic art principles of balance, symmetry, and proportion. Nature will provide the raw material, the rules and guidelines have been set down for us, but You, The Artist, will provide the inspiration that will express your idea of all that is beautiful and perfect in nature.

That is the art of Bonsai. Enjoy it, use your own artistic sense, and don’t be afraid to cut!