Bonsai

What is bonsai? Bonsai professionals like myself ask themselves this question every day. Throughout my apprenticeship, working late into the night, the same question was asked many times. It is very subjective and personal: many see bonsai as an Asian art form, some see it as an extreme form of gardening. Others think it is a path to spiritual enlightenment, while for some it is a simple hobby. It is all of these things and more. To the question of what bonsai is, the simplest, most profound answer I could come up with was “It is a small tree in a pot.” Within that statement lies something deep and fascinating: an art form fused with horticulture, taking in aspects of design, culture, religion, craftsmanship, and discipline. The definition of bonsai can be understood from the etymology of the word itself. In Japanese “bonsai” is written as two words or characters: the first, “bon,” means tray or container; the second, “sai,” means planting. So a plant in a pot could be termed a bonsai— but there is a great difference between a young houseplant in a plastic pot and a six-hundred-year-old pine tree, growing in a four-hundred-year-old antique Chinese container.