Thanks.
I found this too on internet (http://www.bonsaicenter.com) I don't know if
it's reliable or not. I hope the experts in this group can answer this.
Bonsai History
The art of bonsai was developed in the Far East where it is considered an
expression of the harmony between heaven and earth, man and nature. Its'
spiritual foundations lie in the Eastern philosophy of life which strives
after harmony between man and nature - a harmony which becomes apparent when
empathy is achieved with the process of all growth and development. There
could surely be no more fitting example of this than the cultivation of
bonsai.
The bonsai lover will take time to care for and examine his trees. Through
them he experiences a new rhythm of the seasons, and nurtures within himself
the power of creativity as he shapes and miniaturizes his trees. Cultivating
a bonsai tree requires some care and attention, but as a reward it brings
tranquility to the mind, a feeling of being refreshed and, inner peace.
The Chinese were the first to plant miniature trees in dishes, and even
today bonsai is part of Chinese culture. It has a place in every Chinese
community, even outside China itself, in places like Taiwan, Thailand, Hong
Kong and Singapore. Chinese bonsai masters of today still make a distinction
between 'pun-sai' and 'pun-ching'. For many the word 'pen-jing' is taken to
mean both forms of bonsai.
The word 'pun-sai' is made up of the same characters as the Japanese word
'bonsai', and means a tree planted in a container without any landscape,
while 'pun-ching' means a tree that is planted in a container or on a tray
and landscaped. The art of pun-ching dates far back to the early period of
the Han dynasty, about 206 BC-AD 220, when Chinese landscape artists started
to design miniature versions of the already famous artificial rock gardens.
According to legend, Jiang-feng was endowed with a magic power to conjure up
on a dish tiny landscapes complete with rocks, mountains, trees, rivers,
houses, people and animals. At about the same time as the mention of
pun-ching, or miniature landscapes with rocks and trees, a form still very
popular in China today, we find the first reference to pun-sai during the
Ch'in dynasty (221-206 BC): it was Ton Guen-ming; a famous poet and high-
ranking official, who, having grown weary of affairs of state, retired to a
peaceful country living where he began to cultivate chrysanthemums in pots.
This may have been the beginning of potted plants, but it was to lead on to
the miniaturization of trees. Just 200 years later in paintings from the
T'ang period we find pines, cypresses, plum trees, and bamboos-all growing
in dishes. Even before the year AD 1000, in the Sung dynasty, there are
poems describing pun-sai as well as a wealth of literature on how to form
them.
During the period of peace known as the Ch'ing dynasty (AD 1644-1911) both
pun-ching and pun-sai became a hobby not only of the aristocracy but of all
strata of Chinese society. It was not the Chinese who introduced the art of
bonsai to the West; it was the Japanese, first in Paris at the Worlds Fair
of 1878, and subsequently in London in 1909. It is believed that Buddhist
monks took bonsai to Japan in the tenth and eleventh centuries, as they
considered them to be religious objects, 'verdant stair ways leading to
Heaven', thus a connection between God and mankind.
During the Yuan dynasty (AD 1280-1368) Japanese government ministers and
merchants brought home bonsai as presents from China . Chu Shun-sui, a
Chinese official, who, around 1644, fled from the rule of the Manchu's to
Japan, taking with him his entire collection of bonsai literature. It was
his special knowledge that contributed decisively to the spread of the art
of bonsai in Japan. Around this time Japan was beginning to establish its
own form of bonsai cultivation, an art which was at first the preserve of
the Japanese aristocracy, the Samurai, and which only at the end of the last
century became a hobby for all.
Totok Sudarijanto
http://www.samurai.or.id
email: totoks@...
"I do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself."
> -----Original Message-----
> From: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Gillian
> Rubinstein
> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 5:46 AM
> To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
> Cc: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [samuraihistory] Bonsai and samurai
>
> In The World in Miniature: Container Gardens and Dwellings in
> Far Eastern Religious Thought (Stanford UP 1990) the author,
> Rolf A Stein, supports the view that bonsai began as a
> religious practice in temples and monasteries. The practice
> has been found through East and South East Asia since ancient
> times. He gives two anecdotes relating the introduction of
> container gardens into Japan: in one the Empress Suiko
> (593-628) received from the land of Kudara (Korea) a
> representation of a holy mountain. A natural stone surrounded
> by white sand was placed in a bowl (hachi) which in turn was
> placed in a large dish. It was decorated with climbing plants
> and called a katsura-hachi. The next stage introduced stones.
> Prince Shotoku (572 621) gave a dish (bon) in which he had
> set up a landscape with mountains and villages, fashioned
> from stones, to the Emperor who was sick at the time. This
> was called a katsura-bon. (Whether the Emperor recovered on
> receiving this gift is not related by Stein.)
>
> In Chinese paintings tray gardens with miniature trees are
> often portrayed. The earliest examples in Japanese painting
> come from the 14th century (Stein is quoting Yanagisawa's
> 1962 work Tray Landscapes). Tray gardens and bonsai it seems
> were imbued with the same sense of philosophy as painting,
> calligraphy and poetry.
> Peasants may have kept small gardens in pots and collected
> interesting trees from the mountain (though I think yamadori
> means mountain bird rather than mountain tree, doesn't it?)
> as this is a natural human activity, but I would think the
> art of bonsai was more the pursuit of monks, men of letters
> and artists. Gardening was a highly cultured activity. The
> gardens held to have been designed by Sesshu in Yamaguchi
> were considered works of art at the time of their creation.
> Interestingly, they are also "in miniature" - representing
> full scale landscapes just as bonsai do, but on a slightly
> larger scale.
>
> Hideyoshi himself was interested in planning gardens (was
> this his peasant ancestry :)) supervising the layout of his
> pleasure garden, Samboin.
>
> Cheers,
>
> G
>
>
> ---
> Join the 2006 Samurai Fiction contest:
> http://www.samurai-archives.com/writcon2.html
>
> Samurai Archives: http://www.samurai-archives.com Samurai
> Archives store: http://www.cafeshops.com/samuraiarchives
> ---
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>
>
> * Visit your group "samuraihistory
> " on the web.
>
> * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> samuraihistory-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> ubscribe>
>
> * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo!
> Terms of Service .
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>