The art of bonsai is widely known in the West: from the Karate Kid to the American Bonsai Association and even local grocery stores, bonsai has become a common sight in the States. But bonsai, the Japanese art of creating miniature trees, actually originated in China, where it's called penjing. Penjing, meaning "tray scenery," is a traditional Chinese art of creating miniature potted landscapes including trees and other plants. Brought from China to Japan in ancient times before spreading to the West, bonsai/penjing is now popular throughout the world. In China, the art of creating miniature landscapes has evolved in several different ways. Literati Style Penjing: Chinese Bonsai Masterworks focuses on a special category of penjing associated with traditional Chinese culture, such as the painting of the literati, or elite scholar-bureaucrats, of imperial China. Like literati ink paintings, this style of penjing has a subtle elegance distinguished by a lone, lean trunk with sparse foliage exhibiting distinct lines and simplicity. The term "literati style penjing" has been widely accepted by the bonsai community and is becoming more common within the bonsai world. It is well suited to melding concepts from Chinese painting, poetry and Zen into a stunning bonsai work, making it of interest to a wide variety of gardening styles. Literati Style Penjing; Chinese Bonsai Masterworks explains the concept of penjing with a literati bent, exploring its rich history and aesthetics, as well as cultivation techniques, and care and maintenance. It includes 12 examples of literati style penjing creations, which incorporate a deep knowledge of the art form together with practical creativity and artistic beauty. Lovers of bonsai will find much to inspire and delight within these pages.

With hundreds of color photographs and illustrations, this Chinese gardening book is a wonderful introduction to penjing—China's treasured bonsai art. Although most people thing bonsai is a Japanese invention, the art originated in ancient China where it is called penjing. The two Chinese characters for penjing ("pot" and "landscape") capture the essence of this art: sculpting microcosms of the beauty of the natural world from plants, rocks, soil, and water, both as an artistic process and as horticultural cultivation. Both penjing and bonsai are art forms that express the beauty of nature. In China, bonsai, as a part of penjing, is often called "tree penjing," or "tree in a pot." The Chinese divide penjing into three categories: tree penjing, rock penjing, and water-and-land penjing. This Chinese gardening book showcases the Chinese art of penjing in all its aspects for the benefit of penjing aficionados and all other readers interested in Chinese culture. It covers the concept, history, categories, aesthetic features, techniques, display, appreciation, and preservation of penjing. It is a feast for the eyes while providing a wealth of information for the academically inclined as well as the practically minded. There are more than 300 lavish illustrations grouped into three different categories of penjing. The reader will not only be awed by the beautiful compositions of penjing, but will also learn about the Chinese approach to nature and to life.

The art of bonsai is widely known in the West: from the Karate Kid to the American Bonsai Association and even local grocery stores, bonsai has become a common sight in the States. But bonsai, the Japanese art of creating miniature trees, actually originated in China, where it's called penjing. Penjing, meaning "tray scenery," is a traditional Chinese art of creating miniature potted landscapes including trees and other plants. Brought from China to Japan in ancient times before spreading to the West, bonsai/penjing is now popular throughout the world.In China, the art of creating miniature landscapes has evolved in several different ways. Literati Style Penjing: Chinese Bonsai Masterworks focuses on a special category of penjing associated with traditional Chinese culture, such as the painting of the literati, or elite scholar-bureaucrats, of imperial China. Like literati ink paintings, this style of penjing has a subtle elegance distinguished by a lone, lean trunk with sparse foliage exhibiting distinct lines and simplicity.The term "literati style penjing" has been widely accepted by the bonsai community and is becoming more common within the bonsai world. It is well suited to melding concepts from Chinese painting, poetry and Zen into a stunning bonsai work, making it of interest to a wide variety of gardening styles.Literati Style Penjing; Chinese Bonsai Masterworks explains the concept of penjing with a literati bent, exploring its rich history and aesthetics, as well as cultivation techniques, and care and maintenance. It includes 12 examples of literati style penjing creations, which incorporate a deep knowledge of the art form together with practical creativity and artistic beauty.Lovers of bonsai will find much to inspire and delight within these pages.

This book tells the awe-inspiring stories of bonsai and penjing trees in the collection of the National Arboretum in Washington D.C. It details their valuable role in international diplomacy and as instruments of American presidential influence. It also describes their inclusion in world's fair exhibitions, in Asian-inspired gardens around the country, and as a window onto the extensive cultivation of bonsai in North America today. An extensive first-hand account by Dr. John L. Creech is included about the first extraordinary gift of 53 bonsai from Japan to the U.S. in 1976 which prompted the founding of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. Bonsai & Penjing, Ambassadors of Beauty and Peace describes how Chinese penjing and North American bonsai were later added to the Museum, making its collection the most comprehensive in the world. Stories of individual trees and forest plantings are featured, as are the roles played by the skilled and talented creators of these living art forms--people such as John Naka, Saburo Kato, Yuji Yoshimura, Harry Hirao, and Dr. Yee-Sun Wu. Armchair travelers can experience what a visit to the Museum is like, including the discovery of its remarkable viewing stones. Bonsai & Penjing, Ambassadors of Beauty and Peace will delight anyone intrigued by these living works of art and curious about the stories they bring to life.

In this luxurious cloth bound hardcover with glossy slipcase, renowned botanical photographer Jonathan Singer presents his breathtaking images of the world's most notable bonsai. In Fine Bonsai: Art & Nature, the finest extant achievements in the art of bonsai are seen together for the first time, through the lens of renowned botanical photographer Jonathan Singer. This magnificent volume is the result of an extensive photographic campaign, in the course of which Singer was granted unprecedented access to the most respected public and private collections in Japan and the United States, including the mecca of bonsai, the Omiya Bonsai Village of Saitama, Japan, where photography is normally prohibited. Three hundred stunning full-page images and four lavish gatefolds present bonsai of all types, from quiet representations of nature to bold sculptural forms. The horticultural and aesthetic characteristics of each bonsai are concisely and authoritatively described in the narrative captions by William Valavanis, head of the International Bonsai Arboretum in Rochester, New York. And because the container is considered an integral part of any bonsai—indeed, the literal meaning of “bonsai” is “tray plant”—the book also includes some twenty-five photographs of traditional bonsai containers, with descriptions. A further sequence of twenty-five photographs is devoted to the related art of suiseki, or miniature stone landscapes displayed in the same manner, and often alongside, bonsai. With his groundbreaking first book, Botanica Magnifica, Jonathan Singer established a new style of botanical photography, characterized by an exceptional clarity of detail and richness of color, as well as a painterly chiaroscuro. These qualities are just as evident in the present volume; Singer photographs each bonsai with an artist’s—one might even say a portraitist’s—eye. Whereas most books on bonsai aim to instruct readers on techniques of care and cultivation, Singer’s book takes the reader on a visual journey. His images encompass many different species, from azalea to red maple, as well as a variety of blossoms and fruits. Alluring and serene, Singer's photographs make the experience of leafing through Bonsai not unlike entering a real Japanese garden. Fine Bonsai: Art & Nature not only documents the masterpieces of an ancient horticultural art, but is a masterpiece in itself. A portion of the proceeds of this book will benefit the Japanese Red Cross.

Original Japanese edition published by Nitto Shoin Honsha Co., Ltd. in 2007.

Jerry Meislik is a well-known bonsai lecturer, demonstrator, teacher and writer. He has written articles for many of the major bonsai publications including Bonsai Journal of the American Bonsai Society and Bonsai Clubs International magazine. Jerry maintains a very active bonsai web site at www.bonsaihunk.us. There are more than 70 articles written by Jerry in various online forums and groups. The author is an acknowledged expert on the genus Ficus as it is applied to the growing of bonsai. He previous book on Figs, Ficus: The Exotic Bonsai was printed in both hard and soft cover editions. This prior book was used as the start and backbone of this new book The World of Ficus Bonsai. This new book is written for the everyday bonsai grower who wishes help in growing, styling and making the best fig bonsai possible from a tree or two and also contains information about figs suitable for the advanced bonsai grower and artist. The book is highly enhanced from the first book as it now contains over 40 Ficus species references that will greatly help the bonsai enthusiast to identify and to grow these specimens. Also included are photos of many Ficus species to aid in identifying the often confusing world of Ficus. There is also a list of Ficus that likely will prove difficult to grow as bonsai. Jerry has held many offices in the bonsai world. He has been president and vice-president of the Big Sky Bonsai Society; chairman of the publications committee of the American Bonsai Society; a member of the board of the National Bonsai Foundation; and is an honorary member of the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society of Michigan. Jerry has had two of his masterpiece bonsai accepted into the Matthaei Botanical Gardens Bonsai collection of the University of Michigan and into the Denver Botanic Garden Bonsai collection. He has traveled abroad to Canada, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, Chile, Myanmar, Argentina and other countries to give demonstrations as well as to study their bonsai culture and of course to view and to learn from their bonsai trees.

Create a scenic landscape in miniature as Vietnamese people have done for hundreds of years, an art form akin to the more familiar art of bonsai.