Category Archives: Education

This article originated as a series of posts on the BonsaiTalk forum. The original poster stated that there was a tree near his house that ‘looked like a bonsai’ to him and to other members of his family who had ‘no real knowledge of bonsai techniques’. His question was: Why does this tree look like […]

As bonsaist, we spend a great deal of time studying trees in their natural environment. We observe their beauty as we drive past them when we commute and we rejoice in their splendor as we walk through the woods and forests. Many of us widen our vision even further and see not only the tree, […]

The following article is an excerpt from Robert Steven’s new book, “Mission of Transformation.” We are very proud to offer our readers a glimpse into this wonderful follow up to Robert’s first book, “Vision of My Soul” and we sincerely hope that you enjoy it as much as we have. For advance orders of “Mission […]

By Robert Steven In my intuition I find myself,In myself I find freedom;In nature I find the rule,In the rule I find the wisdom. Obviously, all the textbook conventions for bonsai are derived from fundamental concepts of artistry and aesthetic principals of visual art. Among the aesthetic principals of visual art are line, form, color, […]

In the West, penjing has come a long way. For decades, the art of dwarfing trees in containers had been attributed exclusively to the Japanese. Bonsai, we were told, was a Japanese invention. The first teachers were Japanese, and the first books were translated from the Japanese or written in English by Japanese immigrants. But […]

Like the style itself, the name used to describe it takes on many forms and the usage changes from region to region. The word Literati is used by many practitioners and is a Latin name originally attributed to the Japanese Bunjin due to the lack of an exact English equivalent. Bunjin is in turn a […]