Intro to the history

Hello everyone,

This week I looked into some of the more fundamental things with regard to Bonsai and Penjing. Basically looked into some of the definitions and a brief overview of the history. 

To start let's define what bonsai is. It's a Japanese word that means tree in a tray or something to that effect. it just refers to basically a very refined plant that is in a pot or tray.  

Next, there is Penjing, which is a Chinese art that incorporates more natural aspects and includes a lot more than just the tree and pot. Below is an example of one. they are very dynamic and rely less on the beauty of the tree itself and looks more at building a miniature world. 

Next, I did some research about the ancient history of the art in China and how it was moved over to Japan where it really took off. Japan's iteration of the art is what we are all familiar with. It then moved from Japan to other Asian countries where they basically personalized it from there. Next week I want to look into some of these other countries like Vietnam, Thailand, India, etc, and see what is specific to it there and how much of a social phenomenon it is. I should also note too that it started as an exclusively upper-class, elite form of art but has gotten more and more accessible as time went on. Now, basically, anyone can get into the art for little to no money.     

Here are some of the links I used when doing my research:

https://www.bonsaiempire.com/origin/what-is-bonsai   

https://loveforbonsai.com/what-is-penjing/ 

https://www.bonsaiempire.com/origin/bonsai-history 

Reflection time:  

    So basically this week I wanted to look into some of the more fundamental things, defining terms where the art came from stuff like that. I was really tight for time this week so I wasn’t able to look at as much as I wanted. Usually, I spend more than an hour looking into videos and articles, stuff like that but this week was tight. I’m going to continue working on my trees and get the PowerPoint updated with the new information from this week. I now have a pretty good starting point for the history aspect of my project. From now on I think I will be continuing to research and look into the history, and I also want to see how this art traveled to places like Thailand, India, Vietnam, etc. 

Until next time,

Luke