Customer Reviews

Bonsai: Its Art, Science, History and Philosophy

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This text was the one i'd been searching for so long. I've purchased a dozen bonsai books over the years and finally found Koreshoff's book. It's straight foreward, simple, and explains so many things i'd been confused about that other bonsai books don't touch on like the philosophical purpose of the shapes of trees. Bottom line is this: you can get many bonsai books and get close to what Koreshoff has done, or you can purchase hers and be done. You won't regret it.

With few color photographs but many excellent line drawings and lucid writing, the author covers all the essentials. The techniques presented are both practical and innovative. The chapters on shaping, soil, and styling are exceptional. Only Naka's two volume set rivals this publication.

Excellent book, easily the best book I have read on Bonsai & I can highly recommend it. If you want a full, well explained & illustrated account of all aspects of bonsai & want to read just one book then this in my opinion is the book. I like the fact that it covers the science as well as the art as when you understand why you do something it makes it easier to implement. If you are a beginner & have no other access to instruction you could learn the art of bonsai by just reading, understanding & implementing the information gleaned from this book. Written by somebody who has walked the walk & not just talked the talk & written in a practical & non academic way!

If I had to choose one reference book, I will keep that one. I have many books about bonsai, this one is the most complet in al subjects, and have many tips that others doesnt have.

Before you start, this is a long review, but because of what I feel about this book, it requires a review that is more than `it was in good nick when I got it'

I have always been into the miniature, always had a scale model kit I was painting and putting together but whatever the kit was, a plane, bike, car etc., I always new it was never really about having the finished item sitting on a shelf to admire, it was always about the creation of the thing. Detail, precision, slowly putting it together, and watching it grow; for me the time spent in the patient re-creation of a little reproduction gave me `time out'. I ran out of shelf space a long time ago and just slowly stopped making models because there was always a prog to watch on tv or some gig I had to go out for, or surf the net for work, in short the creation and growing desire was lost to me for years.

I never intended to `get into' bonsai, didn't actually see it as anything I would do, until I actually met a couple of trees and saw what they were, what they could be, I knew I wanted to try my fingertips in there. The trees I first met were in my workplace and my colleague informed me they were really bad examples of bonsai, they were rejects from her boyfriends online bonsai business. Within a week, two S shaped chinese elms were brought into work, however, I could not choose between them so bought both. I was given some information about how to look after my little trees but seeing as I have always had a bit of a green finger, I felt confident about the basic care but, knowing there would be some special considerations I went to Waterstones the same day and bought a book. Ok nice book The Bonsai Specialist David Squire- watering, soil types, pinching, fertiliser, watering, wiring, watering, A-Z I got the picture but not enough. So I bought another book, basicaly the same.

Within a week of buying my elms, most of the leaves had turned yellow and dropped off one tree, the other in stark contrast, started to shoot little buds and this was when I had to spend some serious time gently tending to them, that's also when I realised what I had got were not just miniature trees but real living growing models. Their creation of form and shaping through guidance became paramount so I searched the net for posts and books to this end.
I found This book. This book started to open a way of seeing bonsai; a guidance not just in ways that advised how to prune and when to water, but more importantly . . . why

From this book I have learned not only a deeper understanding of the tree but also about the way the tree can be so much more. How it needs you to look after it through an understanding of its needs. Other writers to look for include John Naka, Peter Chan and Chye Tan

Understanding the bonsai tree is so much more than looking after a plant, this truly is an art form, it is also not just about training the tree but about training youself. Finding the point where you come away from the world outside to sit in the moment.

Zen was the word that I found and I realised that more or less all of my experiences as a child building models, all the fine brush strokes and precise gluing together. all of those moments are here in bonsai.
I am relatively new to the cultivation of bonsai (only bought my trees early August) but I am not new to what they represent. The only difference is this a much better way for me to have that moment because it never ends, they are never finished, for me the carefull cultivation of a bonsai represents the perfect scenario.

Bonsai is not just about growing miniature trees, bonsai can help you find a way of 'being' in the moment

Ken, Sheffield, England