Saimir
Ogranaja has asked me to answer two questions for an article in the
journal of American Bonsai Society. The article was published
recently. Here my contribution:
American
Bonsai or Bonsai in America?
Thoughts
of Walter Pall
http://walter-pall.de/
What's
your take on this statement? Since Bonsai is a Japanese word for a
Japanese art form, when one is involved in the art of bonsai, they
should pay attention to and follow Japanese rules of aesthetics. Just
like when one is creating Penjing, they should follow the Chinese
rules for Penjing. Ultimately, they're both multi faceted forms of
expression comprised of art, craft and spirituality practices. If we
grow artistic little trees and don't want to abide by their rules,
that's fine but we may want to call it something else entirely.
Bonsai
is indeed a Japanese word. It has also become an international word,
used in almost all languages for “tree in a pot“. The whole world
thinks that this is a Japanese art form. Well, if anything, then it
is Chinese. And is it really an art form?
Japanese
bonsai is about discipline, knowing rules, respecting rules,
respecting masters, respecting the old ones, not sticking out your
head, not trying to be something special, something different etc..
This has made Japan successful. But in art it is a burden. Japanese
bonsai is generally not treated as an art form. It is a well defined
craft. This is changing right now in America as well as in Europe. In
the Eastern view a good artist is one who does what he was taught so
well that his master could have done it. In the Western view an
artist is one who tries very hard and successfully to find something
new, to be different, to excel, to be a rebel. This is the contrary
of what one should do in Japan. This schizophrenic situation is
causing a lot of confusion and constant pain in the bonsai world.
Just go to some public bonsai forums and see for yourself. I see a
gradual movement towards the Western way of looking at art coming
into bonsai. And this will open the door to a new world. If you are
accusing someone to not follow the rules I have the feeling that you
are not understanding that it’s his job as artist to do so and the
top ones create new rules.
Now
that this craft is finally turning into an art form we have to live
with the fact that some will change more or less radically what we
were used to see as „Japanese traditional bonsai“. Whether we
like it or not it is bound to happen. In the original question about
the name of this game it was stated that this is fine, but should we
not call this a new name? Well, we could, but will it be accepted by
the bonsai scene? I am afraid it will not. The word bonsai has become
an international word and will be used for whatever seems to be a
tree in a container – whether we find this to be correct or not.
Usually
much to my own surprise when I post some of my creations instead of
praise sometimes I get harsh criticism for being so different. A well
known person in Europe who is not so friendly once more or less
seriously thought a couple of years ago that my creations should be
named „Pallsai“ to make sure that this was clearly different from
“Bonsai“. It was not meant well meaning, but I was amused. I
thought it would be great if a version of an art form were called
that centuries after I am dead. Well, it did not happen. The world
calls it „Naturalistic Bonsai Style“ and „Fairy Tale Bonsai
Style“, fine with me.
Now
if someone wants to make sure that he speaks about the Japanese
traditional way of doing bonsai he should call it „Japanese
bonsai“. But then one should be aware that there is no such thing
as uniform Japanese bonsai. The world is changing in Japan too. What
once was considered great, now is old fashioned, when once most did
nearly the same, diversity is getting to be the game in Japan as well
as in the rest of the world.
The
English invented a game and called it football. The rest of the world
also plays this game and calls it football. The Americans changed
this game to be something entirely different and still call it
football. They believe that the world calls the old version of the
game soccer now. The rest of the world does not so. Taking this as
example: Why don’t we from now on call “bonsai” what we do and
demand that the Japanese find a new name for it?
Do
they even bother with what "bonsai" is in other parts of
the world, or do they just grow miniaturized trees without much
concern for Japanese or Chinese doctrine? I'm wondering if the need
to label it as "American Bonsai" is only an American need,
not met by practitioners in other cultures.
Most
sure try to do bonsai “right” in Europe very much like in
America. They are trying to follow rules more or less. They think
they are doing Japanese bonsai in Europe. But the trend is for much
more diversity now and much more freedom. What was “forbidden” up
to recently now is fine for many. To be different than the rest is
becoming a trend. The fundamentalists in Europe hate this just as
they do in America. But they are getting fewer and the mavericks are
getting more.
If
in America some feel a need for “American Bonsai” in Europe this
would be “Italian” of “French” because there is not really
much of a feeling of being European. The internet makes us one world
and a new trend is moving around everywhere quickly. After Classical
Bonsai came Modern Bonsai. I think we can call this new world of
bonsai Postmodern Bonsai to differentiate it from what was before. As
in the real art world also in bonsai there is much more diversity and
styles and trends are running in parallel and not in succession
anymore. The cycles in art used to take decades if not even centuries
in the old days. Now the cycles can be measured in months.
