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Deadwood bonsai techniques are methods in the Japanese art of bonsai (cultivation of miniature trees in containers) that create, shape, and preserve dead wood on a living bonsai tree. They enhance the illusion of age and the portrayal of austerity that mark a successful bonsai. [1]
Deadwood techniques are used for reasons both practical and aesthetic. Practically, collected specimens of aged trees often have dead wood present. Dead wood can also appear on a bonsai under cultivation for many reasons, including branch die-back, pest infestation, or disease. It can be partially or completely removed by the bonsai artist, but doing so may damage the tree's overall shape or the illusion of age. If deadwood is retained, however, it must be chemically treated to preserve it and to produce the coloration of weathered wood. In addition, the dead wood usually needs to be shaped to fit the aesthetic plan for the bonsai.
Deadwood can also be an aesthetic choice for the grower. In bonsai being developed from trees free of dead wood, it may be aesthetically useful to create some deadwood elements to enhance the illusion of age, to hide defects (such as an overlarge or misplaced branch), or to disguise the original trunk after reducing the height of a tree that is too tall. Whether freely chosen, or forced on the bonsai designer, integrating deadwood into a tree's design is a necessity for a significant number of bonsai. [2]
Usually, deadwood techniques for branches are applied to conifers. Deciduous trees tend to shed dead branches and heal over the wound, while conifers often retain the dead limb, which naturally becomes weathered and eroded over time. Most deadwood techniques for the tree's trunk apply equally well to deciduous and to conifer bonsai, although the driftwood style (in which much of the trunk is dead) is generally restricted to conifers.
Jin (神) is a bonsai deadwood technique used on branches or the top of the trunk (the "leader"). [3] A jin is meant to show age, or show that the tree has had a struggle to survive. Jins are created in nature when wind, lightning, or other adversity kills the leader or a branch further down the tree. [4] A jin requires the complete removal of bark from a given start point to the end of the branch or leader. The remaining wood dies and dries out to form the jin. [5]
Creating a jin from the leader (a "top jin") can produce a shorter, more visibly tapered bonsai in a single step. The change in proportion can greatly improve the illusion of age in the bonsai specimen. Removing the active leader distributes vigor to lower branches, which will grow more quickly and help increase trunk diameter, reinforcing the illusion of age. A top jin also provides an aesthetic solution for a tree with two leaders, an unaesthetic shape that the designer can modify by turning one of the two into a jin. [6]
When used on branches, the jin technique allows the grower to remove some of a bonsai's unwanted branches while increasing the illusion of age. A remaining jin may be long, with a pleasing shape bent or carved into it, or short, like the dead remains of a branch broken off near the trunk.
While jin appear natural on coniferous bonsai, they do not look as appropriate on most deciduous and broadleaf species. In these species, dead branches generally rot and fall off the tree. A small indentation is left where the branch used to be, and new wood grows around it forming a small hollow. Bonsai gardeners replicate this hollow as a uro by making a small, irregularly-shaped wound in the trunk . For example, when removing a branch from a deciduous or broadleaf species, bonsai growers often make a uro to avoid having an ugly wound healing slowly and scarring without control. [7]
A shari is deadwood on the main trunk of the bonsai. [8] A small shari usually runs vertically on or near the front of the trunk - shari have little aesthetic value at the rear of the trunk, where they are rarely viewed and are obscured by branch growth. The shallow wound exposes a non-living portion of the trunk, which will be surrounded by living bark. The natural causes of shari include a falling branch that has ripped bark from the trunk below it, lightning damage, or trunk damage from another external source. Shari may occur naturally on a bonsai, or may be created by carving the bark.
If the amount of dead trunk (and possibly dead branches situated on the dead trunk area) is large enough, the bonsai is said to be in the sharamiki or driftwood style, because a large portion of the tree has the silvery, weathered look of driftwood on a beach, or ancient tree remnants on a harsh mountain landscape. [9] "Veins" of living bark connect the roots to the live branches, but large amounts of the surrounding wood are dead, free of bark, and weathered. The dead wood may be carved into arresting shapes, to look like severely weatherbeaten tree remnants. The unusual combination of large dead areas contrasting with small signs of life is compelling regardless of the basic shape of the tree, and driftwood-style trees often do not follow the conventional bonsai styles. [10]
Sabamiki means "hollowed trunk" or "split trunk". [11] It gives the visual effect of a lightning strike or other severe and deep trunk damage, which has been weathered over time. Sabamiki is done by stripping bark from the trunk, then drilling or carving out the exposed wood to produce a deep wound. The hollowed area may start and end part-way up the trunk, or it may start with a wide opening at the base of the tree which tapers to closure partway up the trunk. The wound must not completely interrupt the flow of nutrients in the tree, or the branches above it will die. [12] When the shaping work is complete, the exposed wood is treated with a preservative.
In tanuki bonsai, a living tree is joined to an interesting piece of deadwood to create a composite in the driftwood style. The deadwood usually has the form of a weathered tree trunk, or at least its lower portion. To add living material to the deadwood, a groove or channel is first carved into it. The living tree (usually a young juniper, because of the species' vigor, flexibility, and ability to endure harsh shaping) is fixed within the channel using non-reactive nails or screws, wire wrappings, or clamps. Over time, the young tree grows into the deadwood channel, which disguises the fact that it is a separate entity. Once firmly in place, the nails, screws, or other affixing devices are removed, and the living tree is cultivated and shaped with typical bonsai techniques.
Real driftwood-style bonsai are usually not grown from the common bonsai source materials, but instead are specimens taken from the wild, and are prized but very rare. The tanuki process makes it possible to generate a driftwood-style product from much more common materials. Whether that product can be considered a traditional bonsai is open to question, as implied by the Japanese name for this technique. In Japanese folklore, tanuki (狸, alternatively タヌキ), are shape-changing tricksters inspired by the Japanese raccoon dog. Tanuki bonsai are sometimes known by the term "Phoenix Grafts" in the West, and many bonsai growers outside Japan consider tanuki an acceptable bonsai technique. But this technique is not currently an accepted part of the Japanese bonsai tradition, and tanuki would not be displayed at a formal Japanese bonsai show.
Many standard shop and woodworking tools may be used in the process of creating or maintaining deadwood on bonsai. [13] Pliers are used to grip and break off branches for jin, and are also useful for ripping off strips of bark for jin or shari. Manual tools like graving chisels, burins, and blades can carve detail into the surface of the jins or shari, since real or simulated wood grain is an important characteristic of deadwood on a bonsai. Recent years have seen bonsai practitioners adopt powered tools for deadwood work, particularly small rotary tools for carving and grinding. When shaping is completed, a gas torch burns off remaining small shreds of wood fiber and helps raise the grain in a newly exposed piece of wood. Finally, wire brushes and sanding aids remove tool marks and simulate weathering.
Once deadwood has been shaped to the designer's plan, the exposed area is treated with a bleaching preservative. The most common is a horticultural combination of lime and sulfur, available from many garden outlets. The preservative protects the wood from rot and pest infestation, and provides a uniform bleaching that resembles weathered, aged wood. [14]
Pollarding is a pruning system involving the removal of the upper branches of a tree, which promotes the growth of a dense head of foliage and branches. In ancient Rome, Propertius mentioned pollarding during the 1st century BC. The practice has occurred commonly in Europe since medieval times, and takes place today in urban areas worldwide, primarily to maintain trees at a determined height or to place new shoots out of the reach of grazing animals.
Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing and shaping miniature trees in containers, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of penjing . Penjing and bonsai differ in that the former attempts to display "wilder," more naturalistic scenes, often representing landscapes, including elements such as water, rocks, or figurines; on the other hand, bonsai typically focuses on a single tree or a group of trees of the same species, with a higher level of aesthetic refinement. Similar versions of the art exist in other cultures, including the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese Hòn non bộ. During the Tang dynasty, when penjing was at its height, the art was first introduced in China.
Arboriculture is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. The science of arboriculture studies how these plants grow and respond to cultural practices and to their environment. The practice of arboriculture includes cultural techniques such as selection, planting, training, fertilization, pest and pathogen control, pruning, shaping, and removal.
Pruning is a horticultural, arboricultural, and silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots.
Pinus thunbergii, the black pine, Japanese black pine, or Japanese pine, is a pine tree native to coastal areas of Japan and South Korea.
Girdling, also called ring-barking, is the circumferential removal or injury of the bark of a branch or trunk of a woody plant. Girdling prevents the tree from sending nutrients from its foliage to its roots, resulting in the death of the tree over time, and can also prevent flow of nutrients in the other direction depending on how much of the xylem is removed. A branch completely girdled will fail and when the main trunk of a tree is girdled, the entire tree will die, if it cannot regrow from above to bridge the wound. Human practices of girdling include forestry, horticulture, and vandalism. Foresters use the practice of girdling to thin forests. Extensive cankers caused by certain fungi, bacteria or viruses can girdle a trunk or limb. Animals such as rodents will girdle trees by feeding on outer bark, often during winter under snow. Girdling can also be caused by herbivorous mammals feeding on plant bark and by birds and insects, both of which can effectively girdle a tree by boring rows of adjacent holes.
In trees, heart rot is a fungal disease that causes the decay of wood at the center of the trunk and branches. Fungi enter the tree through wounds in the bark and decay the heartwood. The diseased heartwood softens, making trees structurally weaker and prone to breakage. Heart rot is a major factor in the economics of logging and the natural growth dynamic of many older forests. Heart rot is prevalent throughout the world affecting all hardwood trees and can be very difficult to prevent. A good indication of heart rot is the presence of mushrooms or fungus conks on the tree.
Tree shaping uses living trees and other woody plants as the medium to create structures and art. There are a few different methods used by the various artists to shape their trees, which share a common heritage with other artistic horticultural and agricultural practices, such as pleaching, bonsai, espalier, and topiary, and employing some similar techniques. Most artists use grafting to deliberately induce the inosculation of living trunks, branches, and roots, into artistic designs or functional structures.
Saikei (栽景) literally translates as "planted landscape". Saikei is a descendant of the Japanese arts of bonsai, bonseki, and bonkei, and is related less directly to similar miniature-landscape arts like the Chinese penjing and the Vietnamese hòn non bộ. It is the art of creating tray landscapes that combine miniature living trees with soil, rocks, water, and related vegetation in a single tray or similar container. A saikei landscape will remind the viewer of a natural location through its overall topography, choice of ground materials, and the species used in its plantings.
Bonsai aesthetics are the aesthetic goals and characteristics of the Japanese tradition of the art of bonsai, the growing of a miniature tree in a container. Many Japanese cultural characteristics, particularly the influence of Zen Buddhism and the expression wabi-sabi inform the bonsai tradition in that culture. A lengthy catalog of conventional tree shapes and styles also helps provide cohesion to the Japanese styling tradition. A number of other cultures around the world have adopted the Japanese approach to bonsai, and while some variations have begun to appear, most hew closely to the rules and design philosophies of the Japanese tradition.
A branch collar is the "shoulder" between the branch and trunk of woody plants; the inflammation formed at the base of the branch is caused by annually overlapping trunk tissue. The shape of the branch collar is due to two separate growth patterns, initially the branch grows basipetally, followed by seasonal trunk growth which envelops the branch.
Chrysanthemumbonsai is a Japanese art form using cultivation techniques to produce, in containers, chrysanthemum flowers that mimic the shape and scale of full size trees, called bonsai.
Indoor bonsai are bonsai cultivated for the indoor environment. Traditionally, bonsai are temperate climate trees grown outdoors in containers. Tropical and sub-tropical tree species can be cultivated to grow and thrive indoors, with some suited to bonsai aesthetics shaped as traditional outdoor or wild bonsai.
A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposed to herbaceous plants that die back to the ground until spring.
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. In wider definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos are also trees.
Bonsai cultivation and care involves the long-term cultivation of small trees in containers, called bonsai in the Japanese tradition of this art form. Similar practices exist in other Japanese art forms and in other cultures, including saikei (Japanese), penjing (Chinese), and hòn non bộ (Vietnamese). Trees are difficult to cultivate in containers, which restrict root growth, nutrition uptake, and resources for transpiration. In addition to the root constraints of containers, bonsai trunks, branches, and foliage are extensively shaped and manipulated to meet aesthetic goals. Specialized tools and techniques are used to protect the health and vigor of the subject tree. Over time, the artistic manipulation of small trees in containers has led to a number of cultivation and care approaches that successfully meet the practical and the artistic requirements of bonsai and similar traditions.
Bonsai is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ, but this article describes the Japanese tradition.
A bonsai display table is a piece of furniture used as an aesthetic style element for the targeted appreciation of a bonsai.
Ficus amplissima, also known as the Indian Bat tree, Indian Bat fig, Pimpri, Pipri (Piparee), Pipali or Bilibasari mara is a tree species of flowering plants that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is native to Central and southern Peninsular India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, having a significant distribution throughout Western Ghats of India. It is most commonly planted to provide shade in coffee plantations due to its dense and wide foliage. The ripened figs attract many birds, especially during the spring.
There are various methods of tree shaping. There are strengths and weaknesses to each method as well commendable tree species for each process. Some of these processes are still experimental, whereas others are still in the research stage. These methods use a variety of horticultural and arboricultural techniques to achieve an intended design. Chairs, tables, living spaces and art may be shaped from growing trees. Some techniques used are unique to a particular practice, whereas other techniques are common to all, though the implementation may be for different reasons. These methods usually start with an idea of the intended outcome. Some practitioners start with detailed drawings or designs. Other artists start with what the tree already has. Each method has various levels of involvement from the tree shaper.
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