Gardening : ‘Winter Silhouettes’ Bonsai Show Exhibits the Best of California : Nurtured Miniature Trees, Now Leafless, Seem Magical
The art of dwarfing trees in containers is said to have originated centuries ago in the mist-shrouded mountains of China.
Some believe these potted trees of hauntingly beautiful detail and extremely long life played a part in the magical practices of Taoist sages seeking immortality. Others think that this art, which we now know by the Japanese term bonsai, was a purely artistic extension of the landscape painting and calligraphy perfected by the Chinese cultural elite.
From China, the tradition of growing miniature trees was taken to Japan, where the art reached its greatest development. From Japan, bonsai spread to Europe, the United States and the rest of the world.
This weekend, the Winter Silhouettes bonsai show at the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum exhibits the best work of California’s own bonsai masters. The trees displayed, all deciduous species in their leafless stage, are such perfect miniatures of full-grown trees that they do, indeed, seem to verge on the magical.
The vitality of the Southern California bonsai community can be traced to the founder of the Winter Silhouettes show, Frank Nagata, a nurseryman and bonsai teacher who died in 1980 at the age of 90. Nagata was one of the first to interest non-Asians in learning bonsai techniques; today his former students are teaching the art throughout the United States.
After Nagata’s death, his daughter and son-in-law, Kay and Khan Komai, themselves bonsai teachers, decided to carry on the tradition of a winter exhibition of deciduous trees, believed to be the only such bonsai show in the country. Winter Silhouettes, sponsored by the Baikoen Bonsai Kenkyukai study group, is in its 11th year as a memorial to Frank Nagata.
Each year a select few of the state’s top bonsai artists are invited to show their work that best evokes a winter scene or mood.
The elms, liquidambars, ginkgos, maples and other trees displayed have no leaves to obscure the austere beauty of their trunks and branches, or to hide defects in their training. To exhibit a tree in its leafless stage is a test of the bonsai artist’s skill, because any flaw in his work is readily apparent to his peers.
Although evergreens are excluded, flowering deciduous trees are not, and quinces, pears and Frank Nagata’s favorite bonsai subject, the ume or flowering apricot, are likely to be in bloom for the show.
Bonsai’s place in the American cultural blend is seen in the work of this year’s honored exhibitor, Melba Tucker, a Colorado farmer’s daughter, who became an acclaimed artist and educator in what traditionally had been a man’s art form.
She had admired bonsai for many years before 1963, when she was given a decorated Italian stone pine as a Christmas gift. Intrigued by the possibility of turning her Christmas tree into a bonsai, she began studying under Khan Komai and soon was on her own.
Tucker has taught bonsai for 18 years at Arroyo High School near her El Monte home and has traveled to Canada, Australia, South Africa and Colombia to conduct workshops.
Attracted by the technical and aesthetic challenges of creating bonsai, she describes herself as “the kind of person who says, ‘If you can do it, I can do it.’ ” That attitude--as American as the hornbeam tree collected in Maryland in 1973 that is one of her prize creations--has made her a respected artist, influential teacher and technical innovator.
An example of Tucker’s fresh approach, which can be seen at the arboretum, is a potted group of five trident maples in the saikei (landscape) style, the exposed roots of each tree firmly clasping the volcanic rock on which it is planted. Getting roots to grip rocks is a difficult, slow and painstaking process, but, using very young trees, Tucker pioneered a method that produces show-quality trees in the clasping-rock style in six to eight years--record speed for bonsai.
In her classes, Tucker encourages the use of native trees, such as California juniper, planted on native stones, including the porous “lace rock” found near San Simeon. For accent pieces to display with trees, she uses suiseki or viewing stones, many of which she collected in the Mojave Desert.
Exploring remote canyons, she found the veined and pigmented stones she needed to represent snow-capped mountains or waterfalls cascading over a cliff. Eight miles by dune buggy into a seldom-visited ravine, she made one of her best finds--a richly colored stone in whose markings can be seen the figure of a geisha. If there is anything as rare as a geisha in the Mojave Desert, it’s Melba Tucker, a woman who has achieved the highest standards in the demanding art of bonsai.
The Winter Silhouettes bonsai exhibition runs today and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. (818) 446-8251. Arboretum admission: Adults $3, children 75 cents.
