Is "Naturalistic" Wrong or Useless?

There is a web site called ArtofBonsai.org that is very curious. It consists partly, at this date, of articles by a few of the well known names in the EuroAmerican (neologism alert!) bonsai world, about bonsai as art and, obviously, the art of Bonsai. These articles are, for the most part argumentative and contentious. "Debate" is an often used word there, and the word "art" had become known as "the a-word". Some denied that Bonsai was an art while others demanded definitions that could not possibly be constructed. Such as "What is Art?" (When I was an undergraduate at Yale, I naively asked my advisor what Computer Science was. He answered, "Computer Science is what Computer Scientists do.")  It had very few entries in its "Forum", and almost every time I read an article or posting there, I was the only person at the site. Others, who did dare to post, had the same experience. About 2009, something strange happened to the site. Although it continues to exist, it was abandoned by its article writers (leaving a sinking ship?), and spammers occupied it everywhere. They even infiltrated the articles themselves, between the sentences, with ads for things like Uggs (whatever they are). It is now very much like an abandoned mansion that someone who could not afford it bought foolishly, got upside down with the mortgage, and fled rather than continue payments. Then this edifice got occupied by riff-raff, who turned it into a squat, a shooting gallery. and who knows what else. Yet the articles remain.

One of these articles has an extended comment written by a man I admire greatly, Walter Pall. His point was that a debate about what is "classical" and what is "naturalistic" in bonsai is useless; it has no purpose or knowable outcome. Since I defined my blog and what I do with trees as "naturalistic" and defined the word briefly in the interest of open honesty, I feel compelled to respond to this zombie of an article and Herr Pall's comments. Compelled, because this zombie is still out there for you to read and, if you agree with it, you may call me a naive fool, or as Herr Pall writes:"Too many say classic and mean stereotype bonsai. What is naturalistic? I am afraid that even less know what they are talking about here. Too many say naturalistic and mean unstructured, untidy, sloppy, poor craft - to avoid the word art here"

I am afraid Herr Pall poses a false dichotomy, especially in the use of the word "classic" (you already have a sense of what I mean by naturalistic). The words that I found in opposition to naturalistic are from the Japanese themselves. About the year 970, a Japanese work of fiction , Utsubo Monogatari (The Tale of the Hollow Tree), includes this passage: "A tree that is left growing in its natural state is a crude thing. It is only when it is kept close to human beings who fashion it with loving care that its shape and style acquire the ability to move one." This indicates that the notion that the natural appearance of a tree becomes art, only when modified in accordance with a human ideal, and is an ancient and basic concept in Japanese culture. So, the words, and concept, that Herr Pall should have used, instead of "classic", was "Japanese culturally determined ideal". Although ungainly, that phrase is operational and can be nailed down, as in Naka's list of rules. 

The year 970 was a long time ago, does the notion still hold? The answer is "yes". Recently, at our Greater New Haven Bonsai Society meeting, John Romano showed us a DVD video movie called‘Bonsai: Works of Divinity'. Our members made a very perceptive summary and reaction to it: "The movie chronicled one year in the bonsai life of Shinji Suzuki as he struggled with choosing a tree for the Sakufu-ten bonsai exhibition (Professional Bonsai Artist show) and preparing it for that. He made an unusual choice that was not favored among the traditional judges based on his inspiration of nature and visiting the ancient Jomon cryptomeria in Japan (estimated at somewhere between 2-7,000 years old). He wanted to reflect the naturalness of a tree rather than a perfectly coiffed one." and, "it emphasized the Japanese cultural perception of bonsai art being more perfect than nature”.

So, thanks to my fellow members for providing the proper words for me to  use in answer to Herr Pall's comments and for helping me not to feel foolish (any more than I usually do :-) and that I do not "say naturalistic and mean unstructured, untidy, sloppy, poor craft".

Some of the trees in this October picture are bonsai. Naturalistic?