Japanese black pine, 45 years, cascade style / Photo: Azukari
Standing in front of a bonsai, many people feel unsure where to look. You are not counting leaves, and you are not simply surprised that a tree is small. A bonsai has an order in which it is read, and a direction from which it is meant to be seen. Once you know these, the time you spend in front of a single pot changes.
Reading a single tree
Looking at a bonsai means reading, from its front, the time held in a single tree. The small tree in the pot carries the figure of a large tree from a mountain or a forest, with decades written into its trunk and branches. A bonsai is less something you glance at than something you read.
The front, or face
Every bonsai has a front. It is the one direction from which the tree looks most beautiful. Just as a person has a face, a tree has a face. The artist settles this single direction by watching the flow of the trunk, the placement of the branches, and the spread of the roots. The viewer begins the same way, by finding that front. A displayed bonsai is set with its face turned toward you. Lower yourself a little, so your eyes meet the tree as if looking slightly up at it, and the upward reach of the trunk and the balance of the whole tree become clearest.
Japanese black pine, 45 years, cascade, grown in Kagawa / Photo: Azukari
Nebari, the surface roots
Once the front is settled, look at the feet of the tree. Nebari means the roots that spread outward across the soil surface from the base of the trunk. This grip on the earth gives the tree stability and the bearing of something that has lived a long time. Roots that radiate evenly in every direction tell you the tree stands deep in the ground. When you look at a bonsai, turn your attention not only to the branches and foliage above, but to this strength at the base, and the standing of the tree begins to show. Roots do not spread in a day. To read the nebari is to read the years the tree has gathered.
The trunk line and taper
Move your eye upward from the feet. The point where the trunk leaves the soil and rises is the base, and the way the trunk thins steadily as it climbs is its taper. A tree thick at the base near the roots and narrowing honestly toward the apex follows the same logic as a great tree in nature. The angle and curve of the rising trunk hold the memory of the wind and snow the tree has lived through. A trunk that rises with gentle curves, settles, and rises again recalls the form of a tree that spent long years on a mountain. Trace the trunk from bottom to top and the story of the tree's time appears as a single line.
Shimpaku juniper, 30 years, informal upright, grown in Saitama / Photo: Azukari
Jin and shari
When you look at a conifer, and a shimpaku juniper above all, jin and shari are essential. Jin is the tip of a branch that has died and bleached white like bone. Shari is a stretch of the trunk's surface that has died and been stripped back to bare white wood. In nature, lightning, cold wind, and long years kill part of a tree, and that bleached form remains. Bonsai captures this. The dead white wood and the living green stand side by side within one tree. This contrast of life and death is the heart of what makes a juniper worth seeing. Notice how the white lines run along the trunk and how they answer the living foliage. Read that, and you find long time and a hard nature living together in a single pot.
Shimpaku juniper, 40 years, semi-cascade, grown in Tochigi. White shari against living foliage. / Photo: Azukari
The harmony of tree and pot
Last, look at the pot that holds the tree. The pot is not a mere container but a vessel in conversation with the tree. A powerful conifer suits a deep, weighty pot, while a delicate figure suits a shallow, lighter one. When the color and shape of the pot answer the mood of the tree, the pot becomes a single landscape. Reading the balance of tree and pot is also reading how the artist sees the tree. Only when the vessel is included does the way of looking at a bonsai come full circle.
Shimpaku juniper, 50 years, semi-cascade, grown in Tochigi. The quiet balance of tree and pot. / Photo: Azukari
These five ways of seeing are an entrance to reading the time held in a single tree. The tree stays in Japan, where an artist continues its care, and its record and its seasonal figure are kept over time. The owner can keep a long relationship with a tree without holding a place to put it. This is how Azukari works. When you meet a real tree already knowing how to look, the depth of a single pot opens further. You can see individual trees by species on the Azukari marketplace.
Frequently asked questions
How do you find the front of a bonsai. The front is the direction where the flow of the trunk looks most beautiful, the roots spread evenly to either side, and the branches are arranged toward the viewer, and in a display the tree is set with its face turned toward you. Where can you see jin and shari. They appear most clearly on conifers whose dead wood resists rot, the shimpaku juniper above all, where the bleached trunk and branches contrast with the living foliage. Why does nebari matter. Roots spreading in every direction give the tree stability and the bearing of long years, and the way they spread tells you the tree's quality and the time it has gathered.