Bonsai are grown in many countries of the world, but the development of this art form is attributed to Japan and China. Bonsai is the Japanese word; penjing is the chinese word.

    There is a lot of speculation as to the history of bonsai. Popular myths range all over: a man saw a tiny, gnarled tree growing from a cliff, recognized its strength and beauty, and took it home and grew it in a pot to keep that beauty with him for the rest of his life, or the art of bonsai evolved from plants kept in pots for practical reasons (for their value as medicine or herbs, their fruit, etc), or trees began to be potted and dwarfed because space is limited in Asia.

    The art of growing potted trees began in China under the name of penjing. Written references to miniature gardens in China date as far back as 200 BC, but these may be much larger than penjing.The tomb of Prince Zhang Huai, built in 706 AD, has wall murals showing two women holding potted rock-and-tree gardens (picture at left). The pots are drawn as shallow and about a foot wide – roughly the size of modern bonsai. Penjing was carried from China to Japan around the twelfth century. The pots became more specialized as time went on, until reaching the modern pots, which are often very shallow and wide (or very deep and narrow, in the case of some cascade-style pots.) Some bonsai are planted in rock crevices or in soil mounded onto slabs of slate instead of in pots.

    Early bonsai were often unshaped or shaped into fanciful designs. As time went on, the designs began to imitate natural trees more closely. The ideal modern bonsai looks like a natural tree, whether in a field, by a river, on a cliff, or in any other location. It can be slanted, as if by wind; it can branch widely, like a tree growing in an open field; it can hang down over the edge of the pot, as a tree on a mountainside might grow; it can show age-related damage, such as an imitation of lightning or heavy snows; or it can be grown with other trees, stones, and water, to show a miniature forest landscape. The idea is for the tree to look naturally old and weathered.

    A bonsai should simulate old age, even if it is actually only a few years old. This is done by simulating the characteristics of old age: strong buttress roots (the ones that slant from the soil up to the trunk), some roots showing on the surface of the soil, a thick trunk, especially towards the base of the tree, and thick branches. Sometimes it is desireable to show gnarled or dead wood, which is usually barkless and bleached with preservatives to simulate naturally dead but unbroken wood.

    Some people also grow “mini-bonsai.” These trees are usually less than six inches tall. In some cases, they look more weathered than larger bonsai, but the goal is still a natural-tree appearance.

    Bonsai should also be proportional to the pot and their own roots, trunk, and branches. From a photograph, it would be difficult to determine the actual size of a particular plant – whether it were ten or thirty inches tall.
 

References for this section include: Koreshoff, 1997; Giorgi, 1990; and Yunhua, 1982.

Links:
 Bonsai Center's Bonsai History Page
 Another Bonsai History Page