Learning Bonsai From Ancient Teachers
- Paul Kellum
- Sep 20, 2016
- 3 min read
The Bonsai Teacher Who
Changed Everything
I know all to well that when I started into the hobby of bonsai it was confusing and a challenge to find a teacher that I felt I could trust wasn't guessing or reaching for answers. I started like so many others do, in a local club where the only information came from more experienced club members. I remember the feeling of confusion when even club members don't agree on what they have been doing for years. Those days are changing fast as a new generation of teachers are emerging with the passion and desire to help change the future of this ancient art in America.
In the bonsai world there are not to many people who don't know the name Boon. He without question has changed bonsai in America forever. He is the father of a revolution that he never knew he started. Like the greatest people in history he didn't do it to become famous or to change the world he did it for his unmeasurable love for bonsai and teaching others. He is responsible for sending more people to Japan to study than any other person in America. He established a club show that became quickly referred to as the best show in America that would later inspire others to try bigger.
He was the first to establish a structured teaching program called intensives. Students to this day traveling to the garden to learn come from as far away as Australia. This program has always been taught in an accelerated manner sharing the principles of good bonsai. It also added the hands on experience need to retain the information.
He has also has become an American Oyakata one of the few in America to carry on the Japanese tradition of teaching a student and passing on his own legacy. He has dedicate more than any other person into the education of his students. His influences can be seen in the quality of the trees he has worked on along the way, and the result is a growing change.
The Ancient Teacher
Boon sent us to the mountains to learn from one of the great teachers. We left like all people do not knowing what your really going to learn until its over. This teacher is very old and weathered and creates balance and harmony without effort. This teacher writes no books or blogs but is an open story for all who would come and study.
(Right: Tyler Sherrod Top: Matt Reel Left: Paul Kellum)
Our understanding of bonsai changed with this teacher he shows even the most experienced artist something new . To press your hands against time itself and ask a million question about what happened to you. Boon with all of his knowledge and skills taught us that somethings must be seen and touched to understand. You can't learn deadwood from a book and you don't understand how true that is until you touch these ancient teachers and the reality of what they have to teach becomes all to clear.
Types of Deadwood
The Accent Plant of the Mountains
Studying The Structure
Seeing the curves and movement of these great junipers is eye opening. Seeing all the foliage that was hanging down was dead and the pads of the tree where clean.
The Tree
This tree is special, it was the tree that drew Matt and Tyler's teacher to this very spot before their training ever started in Japan. This was the tree that Shinji Suzuki asked Boon to bring him to after seeing it in a picture from a hiking trip that was published to the bonsai community. The location of these trees are kept secret not to hide them from the world, but to protect them. To sit and think even the best artist in Japan can still learns from these ancient teachers. I think that means we should all spend a little time studying without a book.
Here we are at the oldest living thing we have ever seen it was a great day and we are thankful to Boon for teaching us.
Looking out at the vast wilderness realizing how small we all really are, reminded how great all of our lives have turned out that we are able to be here and do this as friends.
Comments