There are three misconceptions about the art of Bonsai.
That is originated in Japan, (wrong China), you can buy seeds to grow the miniature trees( wrong they take years of nurture) and you trim the roots.
A bonsai tree is a tree species in a pot, styled either to represent a tree in nature or an abstract form.
Tony Tickle has been a Bonsai devotee for thirty years and recently semi retired to persue the art on a full time basis and now he is bringing the world of Bonsai to Britain and Bury for the first time in over twenty years.
The Royal Armouries will be hosting the biggest occasion in the Bonsai this weekend. Eighty exhibitors, mostly young, and one hundred and twenty five displays from around the world.
“It is a fascination” says Tony, “when people see the miniature tree, they can’t believe that it exists.”
Originally it is a Chinese art form, last year Tony was asked to judge a Chinese show, rather like taking coals to Newcastle. It began, people think around six hundred years ago, the intellectuals would would into the mountains to contemplate and meditate and wanted to bring something back to represent to place of tranquility. They would bring a small tree back, place it in a pot and continue to contemplate at home.That is what Tony does, he goes into the mountains and collects them, establishes them, styles them and exhibits them. It is a fiveteen to twenty year process.
The Japanese took the process and elevated it to a fine art, producing nearly forty ways of styling a tree but today it is a dying art in Japan but a rising art in the West.There are five Bonsai schools in Britain, in Italy there are five schools in Milan alone.
One of the reasons for running the event this weekend is to dispel the myths. Another myth is the size of a tree.Tony explains that when he started the art form, information was limited to books, mostly in Japanese and he had to simply look at the pictures and replicate.Of course the pictures in the book were not to scale, trees appearing just a few inches tall, when in reality they often stand over a metre high.
So when people walk in to the exhibition, they will says Tony be stunned at the size.
There hasn’t been a national show in Britain since Birmingham in 1991, and Tony expects this show to be an epiphany to people just like 1991 was to him.The art is as much a meditative process as a horticultural one, perhaps one that chimes with a modern way of thinking. Indeed many people come to Bonsai from the martial arts.
The trees in Bury will be presented as a creative force, properly exhibited, which will be a change for people who have just seen them at flower shows stacked on a table.There will be viewing stones, set up to represent scenes of mountains and animals.
Bonsai Europe runs 10th-11th October at The Armouries Bury
For more information see the website
