Displaying Shohin-bonsai

The featured images are from the SHOHIN BONSAI FAIR “the 19th Shuga-ten” held in Tokyo, JAPAN, kindly supported by the Japanese Shohin-bonsai Association.

Now the display section of the website here is almost updated and reconstructed from the original website. The final transfers of material will be done within this week.

Displaying bonsai may be my foremost interest at the time, watching so many attempts of alternative displays to the original. I often wonder why there are so many experiments with displays when we have an opportunity to learn and develop from an old beautiful art form. The original way of displaying is so beautiful that it is impossible seeing alternatives with the same expression of peace, harmony, simplicity and beauty.

Shohin-bonsai and bonsai has an almost spiritual approach when displayed right. With the word right I do not think of rules and measures, but the feeling transferred to the viewer with a  display that impresses in the silent way bonsai art do.

There are plenty of attempts to make shortcuts with little or opposite effect. Set-ups with colourful sunsets on posters and arrangements in surroundings attracting more attention than the bonsai display, and I wonder why? maybe because we think it is easier to do so, eventing a home-made display style, rather than seeking the knowledge necessary to understand a little of the aesthetics behind the original way of displaying. maybe because it is more difficult to learn and adapt, than event and let loose the amateur creativity inside many of us? The answer my friend, may blow in the exhibition winds of major exhibitions that do not take the original display style in their concept.

Luckily some bigger exhibition organizers do see the beauty of the original concept and adapts the  way of displaying into their concepts of the exhibition. There is no need to fully copy the Japanese way, but having the basics in mind will help and evolve the art tremendously I believe.

There are plenty of opportunities displaying with the traditional display in mind, avoiding overloaded features and a colourful mess, still being very creative and innovative.  Just keep in mind what bonsai is about.

Therefore I have made the section on this website with the aim of expanding knowledge of the original display. Not telling anyone to follow the guidelines rigidly, just as a source of inspiration for those who appreciate the aesthetics of the original display as a basic platform for new explorations and development.