Page 57 - Demo

less is more
Recipient of the BCI Award
of Excellence; Cryptomeria sp.
By Francesco Damini, Italy Introduction by Massimo Bandera, Italy Translation by Joe Grande, Canada
At the recent Arcobonsai exhibition, a Japanese Cedar that I saw for the first time had an in- credible impact on me, so small and yet so much a tree, so suggestive.
When you experience particular emotions from a bonsai, whether the tree is strong and formal, elegant and refined, or informal, you can try to analyze the aesthetic values and delve into the emotional experi- ences that a bonsai masterpiece can provide.
What comes to mind with this tree is what the Japa- nese literati describe as a “suggestion of feelings,” a world of innuendo, relationships and evocations, where “less is more,” where a suggestion is enough to spark the emotional imagination of the viewer. This suggestive power is a poetic ideal that evokes by im- plication.
Francesco Damini’s Japanese Cedar has an amazing force, yet the absence of its large size is obvious: it is very small! A small tree that suggests a cedar of great size. This is the tree I selected for the BCI Excellence Award .
Afterwards, I asked Francesco about the tree’s history and following, in his words, is the story of this small wonder.
In 2000, I purchased a beautiful Japanese Cedar, Cryptomeria sp., a big bush about 60 cm high, in a training pot from Shozo Tanaka, one of the many dealers at the Arcobonsai event. I was attracted by the beautiful surface roots, the taper in the first part of the trunk and above, the extremely compact and miniature foliage, ideal for making small branch pads to create a small bonsai that would please me.
The idea I had in mind was to use only the first two opposite branches, eliminating the apex to a height of about 8 cm, and train them to become the first branch, and by straightening the second, to become the new apex.
Carlo Oddone, our teacher at Arco Bonsai Club and under whom I had the good fortune to get closer to the world of bonsai, suggested this approach, and to repeat it at different heights, to get more taper to be able to manage the plant according to the concept. It’s definitely a slow process but it results in a very
natural bonsai, or as Carlo says, give your plants a tree-like quality.
The following year, in spring, I placed the plant in another training pot and took the opportunity to clean up the roots by cutting away the larger ones close to the trunk. I carried out the removal of the apex and the straightening of the second branch to build the future apex.
October/November/December 2014 | BCI | 55