Penjing & Bonsai

One of my favorite things to do is to create my own version of Chinese Penjing or Japanese Saikei tray scapes. Utilizing trees and shrubs that can be found growing in my neck of the woods, it makes for a fun day to browse the local landscape nurseries looking for stock matrial that can be planted into a tray composition. The most important aspects of the tree or trees I plan to use must be the thickness of the trunk and the proportionate leaf size of the plant.

Rocks are an important element to the tray planting, the actual weight of them should be considered when choosing subjects to include in the overall composition. I prefer to use the lightweight feather stone, which is a type of volcanic glass rock, it is soft and easy to carve, especially when it is soaked in water for a few hours and it is readily available at most home improvement stores or landscape suppliers, be careful handling it though! In its dry state the edges can be quite sharp and will easily cut into your hands and you should wear safety glasses before any attempt to carve the material.

Another element of the miniature landscape is the addition of accessories which include mudmen, buildings and animals. I prefer to make a minimalist statement by using just a few mud men and maybe include a lantern or a small bird to compliment the overall appearance. I usually try to include a few flat stones displayed somewhere in the composition, it seems they enhance the natural artistic aspect of the piece.

I also try to include mosses which grow naturally in my area, i have used the spanish mosses which can be purchased at most landscape nurseries as decorative ground cover to great effect, however as they have deep roots, they can affect the health of your trees, use this material sparingly. I also like to use short leaf mondo grass which can be divided into smaller shanks, it is readily available at local plant nurseries, fairly long lived, puts out shallow roots and adds an interesting flair to my compositions.

When placing the trees, mudfigures and stones into a composition, i usually follow the golden rule, all numbers of included items must be odd, 1,3,5,7,9, etc.

And all items must fit into a long triangle, my tallest tree first, perhaps to the left my medium size tree placed second maybe to the right and my small trees placed as to appear off center in the back distance.

I do the same for the mudfigures, one figure forward to the left, the next slightly back to the right, and a lantern,animal or bird figure to the back,slightly right off center.

The grasses are deliberately planted in a scheme, usually three pieces planted to the left, and five pieces to the right spread out in random areas coming around to the back well clear of the trees and mud figure accessories. The whole point of the composition is so that the completed artistic arrangement, the trees and the mud figure companions can be clearly viewed.

The following account was one my pioneer articles originally published at Art of Bonsai Project and republished in 2011 at Of Bonsai.org, it has been redited to fit this format.

The notion of excluding accent figures with a traditional bonsai is comparatively recent from a historical viewpoint , early accounts from the 14th century confirm Japanese bonsai artists did indeed include figurines with their potted landscape arrangements from the earliest times, only as recently as the 15th century were such garnishes decidedly excluded by the Japanese artists in order to simplify the Zen of bonsai to its present day form. Chinese Pen jing artisans on the other hand had been creating beautiful miniature tray landscapes using small collected trees and rocks from the countryside for thousands of years before the establishment of the Japanese bonsai traditions we think of today.

A favorite panorama would be recreated using tall rocks to represent mountains and small trees to populate the valleys between, mosses simulated grass and tiny pebbles represented the mountainous streams, and much like in the biblical garden of Eden, figures were created from clay to represent humans and animals to occupy these mini vistas.

It is believed that the first mud figures were little more than images of dried clay, and are said to have originated with the temple monks of China, who began the earliest traditions using such figures nearly 2800 years ago to add scale to their potted landscape compositions.

Travelers to China in the mid 1800's reported seeing wondrous tray landscapes in miniature, complete with mountains, trees, houses, temples and figural images, which included emperors, gods, citizens, and fauna displayed in a single container.

These artistic depictions of human and animal figures were originally referred to as San Xai , which described the colorful glaze traditions of the Tang Dynasty ( 900 AD ), they would become the trademark of the Chinese export industry throughout the first half of the 20th century.

The Chinese art of creating mud figures, long before established since the earliest days of the Dynastic kingdoms, began a rapid decline in the 1930's due primarily to the war years beginning with the invasion of Manchuria and eventually the occupation of China by Japanese forces prior to and during WW2 (1935-1943). During the war many of the centuries old Provincial ceramic factories and village co-op crafts operations were aggressively eradicated not only by advancing superior Japanese forces, but by the retreating Chinese military who destroyed whole cities and commercial enterprises to prevent capture by the enemy , some experts refer to the violent loss of Chinas premier artisans during this time as the most likely reason that caused the near extinction of the time-honored crafts which included experienced practitioners of miniature potted trees and landscapes.

In 1948, the Peoples Republic Chinese government set about to restore the countries traditional heritage by locating artisans who were skilled in the Penjing arts, the very few surviving craftsmen were assembled as volunteers to teach classes to the post war masses and as a result the art form has survived until today.

It is recognized that Penjing from its historical beginnings has evolved over the passing centuries into its present form as we know it today, Artisans in different periods of times past have added their own view, their own technique and even forming infamous schools of thought for styling these traditional potted landscapes, therefore it could be rightfully considered to be a personal art form. Whether one prefers, Penjing, Pentsai, or bonsai, historically they are all intricately related, forever intertwined within the ancient mud man tradition.