Bonsai

Title

Bonsai

Artist

Tom Gari Gallery-Three-Photography

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

The Japanese art of bonsai originally derived from the Chinese practice of penjing. From the 6th century onwards, Imperial embassy personnel and Buddhist students from Japan had been visiting and returning from mainland China, bringing back souvenirs that included container plantings.[8] At least 17 diplomatic missions were specifically sent from Japan to the Tang court between the years 603 and 839.
Japan's historical Shōsōin, which houses 7th, 8th, and 9th-century artifacts including material from Japan's Tempyō period, contains an elaborate miniature tree display dating from this time. This artifact is composed of a wooden tray serving as a base, carved wooden mountain models, and sand portraying a riverine sandbar. Small tree sculptures in silver metal are meant to be placed in the sand, to produce a table-top depiction of a treed landscape. While this display is closer to the Japanese bonkei display than to a living bonsai, it does reflect the period's interest in miniature landscapes.
From about the year 970 comes the first lengthy work of fiction in Japanese, Utsubo Monogatari (The Tale of the Hollow Tree), which includes this passage: "A tree that is left growing in its natural state is a crude thing. It is only when it is kept close to human beings who fashion it with loving care that its shape and style acquire the ability to move one." The idea, therefore, was already established by this time that natural beauty becomes true beauty only when modified in accordance with a human ideal.

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May 2nd, 2015

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