I finally got my first Kokufu-ten album! Another “boring” coffee-table book avoided by the rest of my family. It is this year's issue No 84. A couple of observations I would like to share. First, the trees looked more interesting and impressive in real life. Second, the album allows a quick glance at the exhibition and enables us to see general trends. Many trees at Kokufu-ten exhibit ancient maturity and suggest an awe-inspiring length of time and the amount of labor it took to produce them. At the same time, such trees may lack artistic individuality. Look through the album and you will find trees that are almost identical to each-other. Is it a “bonsai copied from another bonsai” situation encouraged by the abundance of mass-produced advanced stock? I still love the book and keep going over my favorite trees.
Desultory remarks of a bonsai otaku ...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
My first Kokufu-ten album
I finally got my first Kokufu-ten album! Another “boring” coffee-table book avoided by the rest of my family. It is this year's issue No 84. A couple of observations I would like to share. First, the trees looked more interesting and impressive in real life. Second, the album allows a quick glance at the exhibition and enables us to see general trends. Many trees at Kokufu-ten exhibit ancient maturity and suggest an awe-inspiring length of time and the amount of labor it took to produce them. At the same time, such trees may lack artistic individuality. Look through the album and you will find trees that are almost identical to each-other. Is it a “bonsai copied from another bonsai” situation encouraged by the abundance of mass-produced advanced stock? I still love the book and keep going over my favorite trees.
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2 comments:
Hi, where you bought this book?
I ordered mine from the Nippon Bonsai Association in Japan, but you can also buy them on Ebay.
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