Bonsai And Japanese Gardening
There are various forms and types of plants that are unique to Japanese gardening, the primary one being Bonsai. Bonsai is the art of training everyday, average plants, such as Pine, Cypress, Holly, Cedar, Cherry, Maple, and Beech, to look just like large, old trees just in dwarf form. These trees range from 5 centimeters to 1 meter and are maintained small by pruning, re-potting, pinching of growth, and wiring the branches.
Japanese gardening is an ethnical style of gardening that is designed to create a scene that imitates nature as much as possible by using trees, shrubs, rocks, sand, artificial hills, ponds, and flowing water as art-forms. The Zen and Shinto traditions are together a large part of Japanese gardening and, because of this; the gardens have a contemplative and reflective state of mind. Japanese gardening is significantly different than the Western type and most would say it is far more meditational and soul soothing.
In Japanese gardening there are 3 basic techniques for scenery. The first of these is minimized scale. Minimized scale is the art of taking an actual scene from nature, mountains, rivers, trees, and all, and reproducing it on a smaller sized scale. Symbolization involves generalization and abstraction. An example of this would be using white sand to suggest the ocean. Borrowed views pertains to artists that would use something like an ocean a forest as a background, but it would end up evolving into an important part of the scene.
There are essentially two types of Japanese gardening: tsukiyami, which is a hill garden and mainly composed of hills and ponds. The other is hiraniwa, which is basically the exact opposite of tsukiyami: a flat garden without any hills or ponds.
The basic elements used in Japanese gardening include rocks, gravel, water, moss, stones, fences, and hedges. Rocks are most often used as centerpieces and bring a presence of spirituality to the garden. According to the Shinto tradition rocks embody the spirits of nature. Gravel is used as a sort of defining surface and is used to imitate the flow of water when arranged properly. Stones are used to create a boundary and are sculpted into the form of lanterns. Water, whether it be in the form of a pond, stream, or waterfall, is an essential part of a Japanese garden. It can be in the actual form of water or portrayed by gravel, but no matter what form water is in, it is crucial to a Japanese gardens balance.
Bonsai Japanese gardening is a tradition that has crossed the Muso Soseki, poet, who said “Gardens are a root of transformation”. A Bonsai Japanese garden is sure to bring about many different feelings and is definitely a transforming experience.
