Fun facts

Bonsai was correctly defined as an ever changing living work of art, growing up together with whom shapes and takes care of it.

The literal meaning of “bonsai” is “tree grown in a pot”; they are from few centimeters to 1,5 meters high, but they are trees to all effects. Bonsai artists shape and take care of them, making them grow with love and respect. Some sources say that bonsai trees can live longer than trees in nature. Bonsai cultivation came from China, called Penjing, during the first centuries of our age. Monks started it, by picking up small trees which struggled in nature and putting them in pots. There was something mystic in that: the young monks had to observe the growth of these trees as the flow of life, in a spiritual way.

Then the Japanese, a thousand years later, made bonsai became a form of art, by specializing terms and techniques, and aesthetic canons. Looking at a bonsai has to create emotions, which must in turn create a deep relationship between man and nature, giving anybody who watches it a sense of harmony and “inner peace”.

Just as it happens for people, “there are trees that would prefer calmness, but then wind comes and shakes them and they cannot avoid it” (Mao Tse Tung); in the very same way nature’s impact creates unique shapes, where dead wood becomes one with living wood. Age, wind or other natural phenomena give trees amazing shapes, that bonsai artists try to reproduce in their specimens. Dead wood techniques are some of the most important methods to obtain the appearance of a long-lived tree.

Dead wood technique needs expert hands and the right tools to achieve a naturally aged looking tree. While applying this technique the bonsaist must be familiar with the tree’s physiology, as to respect it and prevent plant's pain, so the method can only be used on the right trees, ones that have a resistant bark and a hard wood.

Dead wood technique cannot exist without Jin liquid, a tool that is as old as bonsai. Jin liquid is needed to create Jin, Shari and Sabamiki.

Watch this video about the value and beauty of dead wood in Bonsai

Jin is a deadwood technique used on branches or the top of the trunk. This happens in nature when wind, lightning or other adversities kill the summit or a branch further down the tree. To create a jin you have to remove the bark from a start point to the end of the branch or summit. The remaining wood without bark dries out to form the jin. Watch this video about Jin technique

Shari is deadwood on the main trunk of the bonsai, that turns around it giving aesthetic value to the tree. Shari may occur naturally on a bonsai or may be created by carving the bark. Watch this video about Shari technique

Sabamiki is a third technique that requires the use of Jin liquid, and consists in a “hollowed trunk” or “split trunk”, giving the idea of a tree that has been weathered over time. In nature, a violent attack such a lightning or a large storm can create a sabamiki.

Good quality Jin liquid is an inorganic solution that has a perfect whitening effect, giving the look of ancient dead wood and, at the same time, granting a strong protective effect able to preserve wood from pathogen attacks.

Jin liquid in the hands of a bonsai Sensei is a high quality tool to re-create natural aging effect, so amazing and beautiful.













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