“Japanese Bonsai”

[Mikecheck123]

I'm gonna pop some popcorn, pour a drink and watch the thread explode.

Of course there is a Japanese aesthetic, and trees styled to this aesthetic, especially when styled by native Japanese artists, are truly "Japanese". Stating otherwise ignores the existence of Japan.

There is also no debate, the rules are entirely optional, which means they are not rules really, they are mere guidelines to be used judiciously when your own personal aesthetic fails you.

Are we certain that Japan is a real place? I've never seen it.

 

[Mikecheck123]

The people who complain about rules aren't very informed. There are good reasons for rules in law and in bonsai, which is that they are shorthand for some kind of wisdom learned through some mental effort.

Secondly, the thing that is being glossed over in this thread is that rules only mean anything to a particular subjective audience. Sure you can discard all the rules if you are just showing your twig to your Labrador retriever in your backyard, but taking the twig to Japan is not going to go well. Not just because it's illegal. Why is it illegal? Someone learned the hard way that pests like traveling, so we have a rule embodying that earned wisdom.

So it goes with trees. The rules represent things that the audience has learned and earned the hard way.

Can you toss the rules? Absolutely. But not without tossing the wisdom of the audience to prefer being totally ignorant to everything they earned.

It makes no sense.

 

[HorseloverFat]

The people who complain about rules aren't very informed. There are good reasons for rules in law and in bonsai, which is that they are shorthand for some kind of wisdom learned through some mental effort.

Secondly, the thing that is being glossed over in this thread is that rules only mean anything to a particular subjective audience. Sure you can discard all the rules if you are just showing your twig to your Labrador retriever in your backyard, but taking the twig to Japan is not going to go well. Not just because it's illegal. Why is it illegal? Someone learned the hard way that pests like traveling, so we have a rule embodying that earned wisdom.

So it goes with trees. The rules represent things that the audience has learned and earned the hard way.

Can you toss the rules? Absolutely. But not without tossing the wisdom of the audience to prefer being totally ignorant to everything they earned.

It makes no sense.

I think THIS post is the “haymaker”!