Page 15 - 2019 01 BSF Magazine_v3

hands which were slowly and meticulously applying small, thin, copper wire to
numerous, miniature branches on curly trunk, shohin-size, juniper pre- bonsai. I
recall seeing a veritable sea of little trees, patiently waiting for the young master’s
hands to come and shape them. I decided to bother him in the least obtrusive way
possible and I reached my hand over while saying “Mr. Neil. My name is Saimir. It’s
nice to meet you! I think you’re doing good things for American bonsai.” He reached
his hand over, shook mine while replying with a simple yet enough said, “Thank
you!”. He went back to work and apparently hasn’t stopped since, vigorously
promoting American Bonsai. Ryan states: “I think it is interesting that we feel the
need to draw this line in the sand and be committed to either authenticating the
Japanese model and script for bonsai creation or go off in a completely innovative
direction more representative of our culture and the natural environment here and
our species. There are very subtle changes in Japan but that line in the sand does not
have to exist. A proficient practitioner can do justice to the Japanese approach. I feel
like the Japanese model is more craft and more repetition of the pattern and I think
when you move into art you need to be innovating so I think bonsai is a lot of
different things depending at what angle and what depth you choose to view bonsai.
For me, bonsai has become a lifestyle practice much like people view yoga or
meditation. If I had to look at one limitation of bonsai evolving I think the idea of
“tray”, the “bon” part of the word is the confining part. The tray, the ceramic vessel,
at least in its interpretation that is accepted from the antique Chinese container form
has basically been duplicated for the past 100+ years in Japan and is the confining
component that keeps it as Bonsai. I don’t think because you are using a traditional
container that you must abide by the orthodox rules. The beautiful material available
in North America that is not available in Japan should be driving the process. If we
continue to explore and try to do justice to what the material is offering and what the
landscape created, and avoid the “ball-and-chain” approach of the consistent, daily
repetition of the Japanese, our approach will diverge by the dictates of the tree.
Japanese bonsai bears more cultural influence and representation of ideals than does
the natural environment. Where I see people push the ceiling and break down some
of the walls and barriers or at least expand the box is in recognizing that there are
some outstanding specimens out there and wonderful landscapes and conditions to
explore, species to pioneer that don’t exist in Japan and don’t fall into their culture.
I also think we have a representation of ancient design which is very special to North
America because there are so many locations in the world that people have occupied
for so long that ancient trees don’t exist anymore. It has been shifted to a cultivated
landscape and that change means that you don’t get that natural representation of
what it looks like to go to that far expanse of time and life span of a species that
North America has with the Bristlecone pines, redwoods, and sequoias, etc. We have
Olympic National Park with 11 grand champion trees that are the oldest and largest
of their species. There are several of the best deciduous models of an ancient form on
the East Coast through the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains as a backbone of
ancient history. So we have everything to form a new idea as to what happens when
the lack of predictability with the extremes of the natural environment creates a high
level of design and photosynthetic efficiency to adapt to those conditions that wind,
snow, sand, sun, lack of moisture and the elevation create. How does the design of

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