Origins of bonsai – Beginnings.

There are many myths and legends surrounding the precise origin of bonsai, though the full truth will never be known. My favourite here at bonsai pictures is the story of an emperor who was so fat he couldn’t leave his palace. He missed travelling around his domain, seeing the mountains, rivers and …forests.
He commanded that a scale model of his entire empire should be constructed in his courtyard, so that he could survey it from his balcony every day. I doubt it’s true, but it’s a nice thought.

What we can be sure of is that, while the Ancient Britons were still using bronze axes and wooden ploughs, the Chinese were busy conquering the horticultural and artistic complexities of making and keeping miniature landscapes in shallow containers. Murals painted over 3,000 years ago in emperors’ tombs depict miniature trees, rocks and small grasses planted in dishes. These appear to have been valued gifts – so valued that their images accompanied the emperors to the hereafter.

Some 2,000 years later, around the time Robin Hood was robbing the rich, the Chinese exerted a vast cultural influence across most of the Far East, including Japan, where many aspects of Chinese culture became forever ingrained in Japanese life. Among these was bonsai.

Japanese influence It was inevitable that the Japanese, being such a dedicated and disciplined society, would refine both the horticultural and aesthetic aspects of bonsai to the level of a fine art. The spiritual aspect of bonsai wasn’t neglected either. For a period during the 17th century, bonsai was considered to be so intensely spiritual that only, holy men or the topmost nobility were allowed to own them. This was followed by alternating periods of near-obscurity and high artistic profile until the late 19th century, when bonsai finally became a part of everyday life in Japan. You can read more of this article here at bonsai pictures….

Ironically, only 20 years or so after bonsai had become established in popular culture, all knowledge of it was almost wiped out by a devastating earthquake that destroyed the main bonsai-growing areas in northern Japan. Few masters survived. Those who did moved south to Omiya, a small village outside Tokyo, where they started afresh as a co-operative. Omiya village is now a suburb of Tokyo, but most of the original nurseries are still there and being run by the descendants of that original band.
Another two decades later, Japan suffered yet more disaster. The havoc wrought by the 2nd World War, and the horrific results of the two atomic bombs dropped by allied forces, destroyed vast numbers of ancient masterpieces as well as many of the new growing grounds.
Even this heartbreaking period, coming so soon after the earthquake, failed to break the Japanese bonsai masters’ resolve. Such is the dedication that grips the confirmed bonsai addict.

Moving west Ironically, it was the Western occupying forces returning from Japan who were largely responsible for introducing bonsai to the West on a popular level. There had been a few attempts to import these ‘mysterious Japanese trees’ to Britain and France around the 1900s, but in the absence of any knowledge of their upkeep, none had survived long. However, after the war, the ex-patriot Japanese community living in America was only too keen to start spreading the word. Soon there were books, classes and eventually clubs springing up here and there.The first club in Britain was formed in the early 1960s, and it is still going strong today along with about 90 or so others.

Today there are magazines, several annual exhibitions, conventions and professional teachers offering courses and workshops as well as numerous websites such as Bonsai pictures. Small, starter bonsai are seen in garden centres, hardware stores, market stalls and, at Christmas time, even on garage forecourts. Almost everybody has seen or heard about bonsai, but only relatively few know how to care for them. After reading this book, you should be one of them.