Japanese artist breathes new life into bonsai

By Elaine Lies

SAITAMA, Japan, May 11 (Reuters Life!) - The tiny trees used in the Japanese art of bonsai may live for centuries, but the ancient traditions that produce them are being given a modern twist by female artist Kaori Yamada.

Bonsai -- the art of cultivating miniature trees -- has long been seen in Japan as a hobby only for elderly men. But Yamada, who hails from a family of bonsai artists with a history spanning more than 150 years, has managed to make it trendy.

"When I started this job, we were a bit worried about whether the art of bonsai would last since the people who took part in it were dying off," she told Reuters.

"I thought things about bonsai were really being wasted -- that it was seen as a hobby for old men. There should be a way to reach out to women and young people too," she added, speaking at the family nursery, Seiko-en, in Saitama, just north of Tokyo.

Yamada, 29, originally hated the idea of joining the family business and wanted to become a stewardess instead.

But the lure of the bonsai she grew up with, many of them centuries old, proved too strong.

After graduating with a degree in marketing, she turned down a job offer and began working with bonsai, applying some modern business techniques to the trees.

Many of the practical skills she needed she had already picked up by following her grandfather and father over the years.

"The trees were like teachers to me," she said. "You have things around that are 100, 300, 500 years old, and realize that man only lives at most 100 years. These trees know everything."

TRADITIONAL VS. MODERN

Yamada's first achievement was fleshing out one of her father's ideas for a new form of bonsai which led to "saika bonsai" which is designed to appeal to women and young people.

Bonsai -- literally "potted planting" -- became popular as a way of bringing nature inside for many Japanese whose small houses made gardens impossible.

Traditional bonsai growing, introduced to Japan from China between 1185-1333, keeps the trees small enough to be grown in a container. Various techniques, including painstaking pruning and wiring, are used to give the trees a mature appearance.

It can take decades to complete one tree, meant to symbolize a scene from nature, and they can then survive for centuries.

By contrast, saika bonsai -- meaning "colorful flower" bonsai -- use flowers and grasses along with the trees, usually in a container small enough to be held in two hands to make it easy for women to handle.