Why should a tree bow to the viewer?

[Wood]

There are lots of shows that need to raise the level of the tables

The PBE had slightly higher than normal tables for everything except the XL category, and it really worked to the trees' benefit.

On the topic of dredging up old threads on this subject:

Thread 'What cases / when is it right, aesthetically-speaking, to ignore the rule of "angle the tree toward the viewer"?'

Jan 31, 2019

Have heard this for a long time now and I do see the merit of it in the most basic sense, however I have a TON of specimen where it simply seems it'd look silly...maybe the rule is more for coniferous stuff and I'm improperly extrapolating to deciduous broadleafs! In any case I'm eager to hear thoughts on the whole "tilted towards the viewer" idea, I mean even in a 'perfect formal style' I'd feel you'd want it to be truly vertical / not sloped at all (and then there's so many trees like mine where their nebari basically determines the angle, ie tilting forward is at the...

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[coh]

I'm a little skeptical of the explanation that Adair gives. I do mostly tilt my trees but I've found the explanations lacking. I agree with the statement of "great depth". I've dealt with this idea of foreshortening in a different media. This photo is a relief carving I did in the 80's which puts the viewers point of view on the end of the boom. It is very foreshortened and makes an illusion of great depth in a space of about an inch. It doesn't make the boat or anything in the composition look shorter than it actually is. It just compresses the space. Most of the illusion is accomplished by the converging lines of the ropes, boom and and objects becoming smaller as they recede into the background.
,,,

One of the problems with Adairs explanation is that you don't see the same tree without the top tilting forward. You just accept what he's said as "it must be true" because it's a very nice tree.
A few years ago my pals and I went to the Columbus, OH club show. The exhibit was full of trees leaning away from you......enough that we all commented on it and said "they mustn't have gotten the memo". However, going back through the show and looking again, I realized that I wasn't really offended by it. Sometimes we just get too sensitized to a convention and think there's no other way.

I still haven't explained why it works, so have at it.

Like you, I find the explanations unsatisfying (and this is obvious from some of my previous heated debates with Adair in those older threads). My thinking is that the effect of leaning the apex forward is minimal at best, and is probably limited to taller bonsai that are viewed from the optimal position (roughly mid trunk). I think if you are viewing the tree from too high, which is common at shows, the leaning apex might actually work against the intended illusion. And for mid-sized and shohin I don't think it works at all.

I've thought that an interesting experiment would be to create some artificial "bonsai" where the apex angle could be adjusted (leaning forward, upright, leaning back), and then show those trees to non-bonsai people. Ask them if the trees seem different, and if so, how...and do some of the trees appear larger than others. You couldn't use bonsai people because they have been pre-conditioned to believe that the leaning apex makes a tree look better or bigger or whatever.