No where is imperfection and aging revered more than in the art of bonsai, where ancient trees are refined in miniature as monuments to nature. Experience these hand-crafted landscapes today and June 19 by attending Kaua‘i Bonyu Kai’s annual summer
No where is imperfection and aging revered more than in the art of bonsai, where ancient trees are refined in miniature as monuments to nature.
Experience these hand-crafted landscapes today and June 19 by attending Kaua‘i Bonyu Kai’s annual summer exhibition of fine bonsai and suiseki (stone art) on display from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. today and 10 a.m. to noon June 19 at the Kaua‘i Society of Artists’ gallery at Kukui Grove Center.
A collaborative effort between man and nature, this peaceful and time-consuming art is the result of artistic and technical discipline — with some specimens taking up to eight years to craft.
For decades Hanalei resident, waterman and drywall contractor Lance Laney has been exploring this meditative art form.
“It’s the hardest thing in the world to capture imperfection — that irregular flow that makes a bonsai perfect,” said Laney, a founding member of Kaua‘i Bonyu Kai.
Moving to Kaua‘i in 1965, Laney recalls the abundance of bonsai in many Japanese yards. What began as a young man’s infatuation grew into an obsession by the time he was 40. Today Laney tends over 200 trees daily. In 2000 he made a pilgrimage to Japan to study with a bonsai master — only to discover he had arrived ill-prepared.
“It was embarrassing,” he said. “None of the bonsai masters speak English.”
Returning home after one month, he devoted the next eight years to learning Japanese.
“They won’t accept you in an apprenticeship unless you speak Nihon-go (Japanese),” he said.
In 2008 Laney spent a year studying shohin bonsai as an apprentice with bonsai master sensei Noroboishi, at Tai-Sho Inn nursery in Shizoka, Japan. Translated as “a tiny thing,” the shohin bonsai are generally no taller than 10 inches in height.
Laney and three other apprentices worked 12 hours a day, six days a week at the nursery.
“It’s a very humbling experience,” Laney said. “You sit low on small stools or kneeling to work on the trees.”
The day began at 6 a.m. cleaning where the sensei would meet with clients, then he’d set up a bonsai display and make tea for the master’s arrival at 7 a.m. The remainder of the day apprentice work on bonsai.
More than simply collecting in the wild, bonsai involves strategy, patience and vision, keeping in mind the health of the tree. One grafted tree took eight years to complete.
“Before I touch a tree, I need a healthy tree,” he said. “You do work, then let it recover. It can take two to three years. There has to be a balance of sap flow. A tree can bleed out just like a person losing a limb. I had to kill a lot of trees to learn this.”
To make a found tree beautiful may take serious tampering, though.
“In Japan it’s all about grafting to make a new tree,” he said. “You take a good foliage to make a better tree.”
Practically engineering a new tree, Laney may graft new material to a trunk or air-layer — a process of rooting a section of a tree, then removing it from the mother stock.
Laney’s intent is to cleave as closely to “the natural” as possible.
“I like to let the tree talk to me; so it stays wild,” he said. “At a show we want to hear people say it looks like it grew there; that they feel like they are in nature walking in the woods. I am trying to bring the mountains and the sea shore into my pots.”
Approximately 40 trees of all sizes will be shown at the indoor venue. Kaua‘i Bonyu Kai bonsai have appeared in national and international publications. Members give lectures and demonstrations in Hawai‘i and on the Mainland.
• Pam Woolway, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or pwoolway@kauaipubco.com.
