Why settle for the real thing when you can get the miniature version? Herein lies the appeal of puppies, tiny electronic items and bonsai trees.
The art of bonsai traces its origins back to Tang dynasty China, where penjing (盆景), literally "tray landscape," developed from an imperial delight to a popular art form. According to legend, the idea of miniature trees goes back even further to a Han emperor who had a miniature version of his empire, complete with mini trees, created in his courtyard so that he could gaze over his "domain" from his window.
Miniature trees found their way to Japan, where they became "bonsai" ("tray-planted"), during the large-scale Chinese culture importation of the Heian period (794 AD to 1191). Long reserved for the elite, bonsai didn't gain mass popularity until the 14th century.
PHOTOS: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
As early as the 16th century, traders and missionaries brought bonsai from Japan and China back to Europe. By the late 1800s, two Japanese nurseries had set up shop in New York. Soldiers returning from Japan after World War II with bonsai trees fueled the growing popularity, and many Western nurseries began to grow bonsai. Today, prize-winning bonsai are cultivated from Thailand to Puerto Rico, England and the US.
In Taiwan, bonsai culture began in the late Qing dynasty. Taiwan's oldest living bonsai is a 240-year-old banyan that resides in Tainan's Kaiyuan Monastery (
"If you count bonsai growers registered with an association, there are between 10,000 and 20,000. For unregistered growers, the number is more like 100,000," said Yen Zi-jing (顏子景), who owns Bonsai World in Beitou (北投).
Bonsai growers in Taiwan are luckier than most: they have the climate on their side. The subtropical temperatures allow the trees to grow faster for longer. According to Yen, that means a fully developed tree can be produced in Taiwan in half the time it takes in Japan, where the climate is temperate.
Meanwhile, Taiwan's mountains mimic temperate and even frigid climates, providing for a broad range of tree species. These factors combine to make Taiwan's bonsai second only to Japan, said Yen.
Depending on its target size, a bonsai begins as a cutting or a seedling. Over the course of about five years it is pruned periodically to develop tapered trunks and branches. Young seedlings will naturally keep an even thickness for several meters. With bonsai, the trunk is chopped off at progressively higher points, causing it to grow thinner and thinner towards the top, creating the gnarled, tapered look of an old tree. The same is done to the branches.
The most basic principle of bonsai is that every part of the miniature tree -- roots, trunk, branches and leaves -- should be in proportion.
Not all species of tree are suitable for bonsai cultivation. The tree has to have naturally small leaves or be able to
develop them, and the space between leaves must be minimal. This can also be done with careful pruning -- the less space between leaves, the smaller they will grow.
Trees that are popular in Taiwan include tamarind, Chinese parasol trees, common jasmine orange, Formosa firethorn, maple, Chinese hackberry and even guava, but the most widely grown is the banyan.
"Taiwan's banyan bonsai are the best in the world," Yen said. "But as for exports, the cypress is our top tree." Evergreens are especially valued in the bonsai tradition due to their sturdiness. Cypress, which grows with a bent trunk in nature, is consi-dered the most beautiful tree to grow as a bonsai.
"One of the important issues for bonsai creation is how to catch the specific characteristic and spirit of each species. Cypress is grown at high altitudes ... Affected by the violent geography and climate, it always develops a flexible trunk and branches ... Tender but tough, cypress fully reveals the value of life and accommodation in adverse circumstances," writes Yunlin (
According to Yen most of the value of a bonsai depends on its age and how well it imitates nature. Yet to the trained eye, a beautiful bonsai is one that goes beyond simple realism to convey a deeper, indescribable aesthetic.
Yen, who offers classes in the art of bonsai, emphasized the importance of learning how to appreciate that aesthetic before spending a large sum on a banyan tree. The trees in his nursery -- mostly large bonsai that are 40 to 50 years old -- cost from NT$150,000 to NT$3,000,000. For those with a tighter budget and a less discerning eye, a smaller, younger bonsai from the Jianguo Weekend Flower Market (
Bonsai World is at 235, Chengde Rd, Sec. 5, Beitou, Taipei.
The Web site is www.bonsai.org.tw/aiabonsai/
The phone number is (02) 2828 8022.
The entire saga involving the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and its Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) continues to produce plot twists at such a rapid pace that fiction publishers would throw it out for being ridiculously improbable. This past week was particularly bizarre, but surprisingly the press has almost entirely ignored a big story that could have serious national security implications and instead focused on a series of salacious bombshell allegations. Ko is currently being held incommunicado by prosecutors while several criminal investigations are ongoing on allegations of bribery and stealing campaign funds. This last week for reasons unknown Ko completely shaved
Gabriel Gatehouse only got back from Florida a few minutes ago. His wheeled suitcase is still in the hallway of his London home. He was out there covering the US election for Channel 4 News and has had very little sleep, he says, but you’d never guess it from his twinkle-eyed sprightliness. His original plan was to try to get into Donald Trump’s election party at Mar-a-Lago, he tells me as he makes us each an espresso, but his contact told him to forget it; it was full, “and you don’t blag your way in when the guy’s survived two
The self-destructive protest vote in January that put the pro-People’s Republic of China (PRC) side in control of the legislature continues to be a gift that just keeps on giving to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Last week legislation was introduced by KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-lin (翁曉玲) that would amend Article 9-3 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to permit retired and serving (!) military personnel to participate in “united front” (統戰) activities. Since the purpose of those activities is to promote annexation of Taiwan to the PRC, legislators
Nov. 18 to Nov. 24 Led by a headman named Dika, 16 indigenous Siraya from Sinkan Village, in what is today’s Tainan, traveled to Japan and met with the shogun in the summer of 1627. They reportedly offered sovereignty to the emperor. This greatly alarmed the Dutch, who were allies of the village. They had set up headquarters on land purchased from the Sinkan two years earlier and protected the community from aggressive actions by their more powerful rivals from Mattau Village. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) had been embroiled in a bitter trade dispute with Japan, and they believed
RSS