Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Masahiko Kimura and Bonsai as Living Sculpture

The term Living Sculpture can be applied to a number of categories such as Land Art, Environmental Art, and Bonsai. Today, we look into the life of the "Magical Technician of Kindai Shuppan"; Masahiko Kimura. Bonsai art is no easy task, people have to intensively twist and coil wires into young plants to inhibit or shape their growth, at the same time leaves and roots have to be trimmed for the tree to grow into miniaturized proportions. At the early age of 15, Kimura became the apprentice of bonsai master Motosuke Hamano of Toju-en Bonsai Garden. His great skill in conceptualizing the growth pattern of trees became his catalyst into the bonsai society's greatest. He was also able to swiftly move past critiques who said his works were widely controversial at first.



In his early years though,  Kimura did not have the entire support of the Japanese Bonsai community because he desired unconventional forms for his art. His very first workshop was at the 1987 Golden State Federation Bonsai Convention in Anaheim, California. He has been giving workshops on Bonsai ever since, and has grown in popularity over the international art scene. Most of the trees he designed were Juniperu Chinensis, but he expanded his trade to encompass different kinds of local and foreign trees over the span of his long career. Kimura had won many awards for his bonsai sculptures, such as the Prime Minister's Award four times (4 years), and the Minister of Education Award in 1999. He was also the teacher of popularized bonsai artist; Marco Invernizzi.

4 comments:

Todo pasa por una razon said...

Muy buen post, tengo varios bonsai en mi jardin.

Saludos,


Simple Torsion

Unknown said...

I'm glad that you wrote a blog about Bonsai on a sculpture blog. Aside from sculpture, Bonsai is one of my passions. I've been studying and practicing it for about 10 years now. The art of bonsai definitely demands respect. I must say though, that the picture you chose isn't a very good example of what Bonsai has to offer. ;)

Unknown said...

Yeah bonsai are a living kind of sculpture. Very nice article it is.
I had seen so many kind of bonsai plants.
dean graziosi

The Sculptor's Apprentice said...

Bonsai is a nature-imbued sculptural form and I find it a very peaceful, yet artistic hobby myself. Sorry though about the picture, I believe I have better ones, but my computer isn't on hand right now and I drew that one from an online shared source. Thanks though everybody. :)

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