#BonsaiNews: One simply cannot bonsai without a sense of spirituality

NATURE in its purest form is the simple living and breathing creation of art and, the destruction thereof as it makes room for the countless other potential creations it has planned for the future.

We've seen this countless times throughout history, the beauty and sheer violent destruction of civilizations - ravaged and returned to nature.

Once such place taken back by nature is the Cambodian-based Ta Prohm Temple, originally called Rajavihara

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization adopted it as a site in 1992

The point being, nature has a way of taking back what belongs to it, buildings and humanity be damned

Such, at it's core essence, is the nature of bonsai as well though, in some cases bonsai are fortunately handed down through the generations - especially in Chiako Yamamoto's case.

WATCH HER STORY HERE:

In short, nature finds a way to survive even if we offer to care for it - terms and conditions do however apply, as is evident with global warming.

So instead, we as bonsai lovers and caretakers of these special trees take inspiration from nature as well as the occasional Yamadori* (*Taken from the wild/mountains for the purpose of bonsai).

Inspiration comes in many forms and often, we attempt to recreate spectacular natural scenes, such as the ones below:

Where would we be if not for God, Buddha, Allah or whatever divine being you worship? As Chiako Yamamoto explained, one cannot do bonsai without a sense of spirituality.

Spirituality is a must, since pieces as below cannot be created without it.

A marvelous bonsai created by the famous, Harry Harrington

I have no idea who created this beautiful piece however, the image was obtained from www.bonsaiempire.com

The effort and time, which is the point I am trying to make but probably failing at miserably, which is put into these trees comes at a price: faith and trust.

Faith because, we have no idea if we will ever achieve what we desire but, we still push forward believing that we will.

Trust because, we must know when to step back and allow nature to take its course instead of interfering and attempting to speed up the process.

Efforts to achieve miraculous transformations take time, patience and lots and lots of love. Love for what you do, how you do it and for the things you are working on.

Ever since the initial purchase of the bonsai below, struggles were all that it knew - from rejecting the host pot it had been planted in initially, to an almost certain state of death. It was by sheer luck and trust that the plant survived.

Luck because, the die back and browning the plant had experienced in its initial pot was so severe, it ended up dropping browned needles.

Trust because, I left it in the ground after having transplanted it to a smaller pot and leaving it alone for nearly a year.

This weekend having come and gone, I removed the fully recovered Juniper Chinensis from where I had left it to recover in its pot, and started to work on styling it again.

As can easily be seen, the tree's pot is quite small and, the initial shape of the tree resembles that of the style known as 'windswept'

For months I waited patiently in the hopes that the tree would recover and when it did, I knew it was safe to proceed with the new vision I had planned for the tree.

I got to work applying wet raffia paper to the base, carefully working it along the length of the tree until I had covered the important bits which would be bent into the new shape after wire had also been applied.

It took some time carefully working the raffia and wire but, the effort paid off

Now, I was free to style the tree into almost any shape however, too much bending meant a longer recovery period so, I started small, with a simple double back of the tree's current shape.

Now that the work and bending has been completed, this tiny Juniper will be left to recover

Would you believe me if I said that the width of the pot is only 10cm and, it's depth a mere 6cm? Fortunately, Junipers are not afraid of dry conditions and, enjoy absorbing moisture through their needles by air.

And in case, a point I hope came across. Even though the Juniper appeared set on a path headed for dead, it bounced back. Nature always bounces back. All we have to do, is take one or two or three steps back and leave it to do the work.

Happy Steeming

#BonusPhoto

One of my latest trees which has fully recovered - this is a four-year-old Juniperus x media 'Blaauw' which was taken as a cutting through the method of air-layering

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