Last weekend I followed my Sensei and two other students to an event in Italy, we had the opportunity to assist Nicola in his demonstration on a mugo pine and we really had 4 wonderful days together. One morning, during breakfast, a reader of my blog approached to ask me about the follow up of my visit to Japan. At first I was astonished to really meet a reader, on the other hand I felt very sad because I stopped posting regularly. Well the reader was very polite and happy to hear by voice my experience at Kouka-en, but the next day I grabbed my ipad mini and started to write again.
I won’t bore you with the details, but I had a bit of a rough patch and I’m slowly getting back on my feet again. Please excuse my negligence and let’s talk bonsai again.
By my carelessness and disinterest in everything I might have killed some plants. I came across an article written by a student of the Scuola d’arte bonsai with the title “What does bonsai mean to you?” For him, bonsai represents art and discipline in the same way; discipline because of the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly maintenance and it becomes art, when discipline became interpretation of emotion and feeling.
This made me wonder: is bonsai really an art? In my neophyte eyes, bonsai at the moment is miles away from art! I feel more like a servant; water the tree, give her nutrition, protect her from the elements, take care of her (remember, for me bonsai are all females). Maybe the cause is such a bad winter, or maybe it’s because I feel sorry for the plants that I did not care enough for and they may die. Or maybe the reason behind my feeling is deeper. Well… this answer is somewhere out there and will come to me as time goes by.
YOU!)
In the meantime I hope that this blog will start up again, that my vision of bonsai will keep on evolving, that the upcoming spring will bring not only the sunshine over my bonsai but also into my heart again.