Professional bonsai and suiseki from Peter Warren. Japanese bonsai educated by well known bonsai master Kunio Kobayashi.
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Rashisa
This was an article on the ABBA site many years ago, when I was still a first year apprentice. Although I stand by what I said, it makes me laugh to read it again...
A simple question which I often ask myself and am asked by everyone is, What is Bonsai? I found a simple answer the other day; Small trees that look like big trees. It seems like an obvious statement, but is one that is taken for granted? I certainly had done so, as it came as a startling revelation; a case of not seeing the wood for the trees.
The answer came during an average day at work, we were working with Maples of various descriptions; I was wiring a rough barked maple, Tom (the American) and Tanoue–kun (the youngest apprentice) were wiring mountain maples. I‘m a big fan of deciduous trees, especially maples, as they are usually shaped in something that resembles a tree; something that resembles a tree in my mind as an Englishman at any rate. During the course of the day, while the Chief was away on business, Tanoue–kun started making exasperated noises to draw attention to him. The abridged conversation followed.
Tom: What‘s wrong?
Tanoue: I‘m having trouble with this tree, I don‘t know what it should look like.
Tom: Look in the Kokufu-ten books.
Very sound advice, looking at the trees which have been in one of the top exhibitions in the world is a good start. After twenty minutes of furtive study, the Boy Wonder set to work, only to give up even more desperate two minutes later. He then approached me and asked me, What do maples look like? The simplicity of the question took me aback, because the answer was staring him in the face. No more than five metres away from the work room grows a cluster of long, slender and graceful maples. I pointed at them and told him, That is what they look like. It really is that simple. I had been furiously searching for some complex and mystical answer which would open up a whole new understanding of the universe and of that which I am devoting my life to.
The answer I got was a tree in the corner of a garden. As always I had fallen into the trap of over complicating matters, for which I blame Pythagoras and all his cronies. The western mentality is to analyse and to deconstruct and to categorise and to reconstruct and to analyse and to do it all ad infinitum. This is one of the biggest differences between the western and eastern approach, trying to understand using set squares and slide rules; as opposed to the acceptance of that which we don‘t understand, in the hope that it will be revealed to us at some point in the future. Patience is pivotal in bonsai as it is in life; it is not something which should be rushed in an attempt to get to the goal of perfection, as the goal is unobtainable.
The word rashisa is Japanese for in the natural style of; for example Onna rashisa is literally in the natural style of woman or femininity. Natural style is one of the fundamental bonsai concepts and one which is often disregarded. It is an idea which invites questions which lead to the philosophical side of bonsai. Bonsai can be considered from many different perspectives and philosophical levels; but so can a bacon sandwich. If you take away all the pretentiousness and look at it simply, a tree is a tree is a tree. Bonsai is a small tree that looks like a big one. The starting point is simple, and the end is simple, however the path between them is circuitous.
One of the first questions that it asks is, What does a tree look like? My idea of a tree, and subsequently a bonsai, is different from my master‘s. This is due to our respective cultural backgrounds and the refinement of his vision of nature. The traditional Japanese image of a tree is a lonesome bunjin style pine, fighting bravely on a desolate and inhospitable mountain side. The traditional English image of a tree is a majestic spreading Oak on a tranquil and verdant village green. Chalk vs. cheese, Kylie vs. Britney, Ikeno Taiga vs John Constable.
If this is true, is it possible for an Englishman to master what is essentially a Japanese art? Is it possible for my master to make a bonsai in the traditional English style? Yes; it is possible if you can understand why a tree looks like it does in nature. If you can empathise with nature and begin to see the reasons why we have majestic oak trees on our village greens, then you can just as easily see why a bunjin looks like it does. It is for the refinement of this understanding and empathy that I am here in Japan .
Bunjin, or literati style trees are often considered to be the most difficult to create because there are no rules to follow. Personally I hate rules, nature obeys no rules, it just is. If you follow rules then you will make not make anything which can be considered to have come from the heart. Bonsai falls into categories, styles, genres or whatever you want to call it; but with definite classification comes the grey areas that defy the formal structure. Two categories which I adhere to are trees that I like and trees that I don‘t. By adhering to the rules which are set forth will help you make trees that work, but not always. Nature often defies logic and reason; and Art more so.
One of the reasons that I love Bonsai is that I love women. A rather outlandish statement perhaps, but one which I am starting to understand more and more, because it all boils down to the same thing, beauty, form and rashisa. My tastes in Bonsai lean towards the feminine; graceful, slender, and sublime. In real terms this means that I prefer lierati to formal upright; red to black pine, deciduous to coniferous. That isn‘t to say that I don‘t like or feel moved by a juniper which is twisted around its own half dead self; I just like what I know, and know what I like. For me, feminine trees hold an innate beauty that cannot be created artificially, in the same way that Kylie Minogue looks better than Britney Spears. 
Kylie is somebody familiar to me, I grew up watching her on Neighbours and singing pop songs before blossoming into one of the sexiest thirty–something year old women in the world ever. Britney Spears is some grotesque plastic Frankenstein creation that will not stand the test of time. Maples are trees familiar to me; I grew up in and around deciduous trees, from thin and delicate saplings to tall and willowy mature trees. I didn‘t grow up in the bleak midwinter on a Japanese mountain, so that‘s why I prefer Kylie. A bit of a tenuous analogy, but it works in my mind.
Maples are one of the best examples of rashisa; like women, they are at their best when they are about thirty, still young and beautiful but they have a few years of experience and an understated strength which makes them all the more attractive. Too young and they are gangly and awkward, too old and they are fat and tired. (Note to people who are taking me literally.don‘t; I‘m not a sexist brute really). Naturally they have a relatively short life span; it is rare to find specimens over a hundred years. One of the reasons is due to the root system. They tend to develop lateral roots as opposed to a deep tap root, this means that a strong gale force wind and they topple over quite easily. This also leads to kabudachi or multiple trunk style trees, where lots of thin trunks rise and spread from one central root mass. Each trunk fights for a limited amount of sunlight and a hierarchy is created, with one dominant trunk growing as it pleases, and the others scrap it out in every direction for seconds. Individual trees when given the space will tend to grow into a traditional upright style as though they were growing on a village green, spreading out into a rounded canopy of foliage. Maples will not naturally grow into a lonesome literati on the side of a mountain, nor will a kuro matsu grow into a hokidachi in a the middle of a field in Hampshire. To make meaningful and therefore more beautiful Bonsai, it is imperative to consider the tree in its natural context, otherwise it‘s just a twig in a pot.
What does all of this nonsensical rambling mean? Bonsai is an art form which uses nature as its medium and its subject; it is a distillation of nature, as opposed to a miniaturisation of it. In the artistic process care must be taken not to stray too far away from the natural order of things. As far as I am concerned, one of the best ways to study Bonsai is to take a walk in the park and sit and look at the trees and let your mind wander. Some people might say I‘m just sat on my lazy backside doing nothing, I prefer to think I‘m waiting for the penny to drop.