Evaluating Bonsai
by Yuji Yoshimura, Assisted by William N. Valavanis
Bonsai are evaluated and judged every day throughout the world. Whenever one purchases a new specimen to add to a collection or selects a tree for exhibition, a judging or evaluation process takes place. Professional bonsai artists are particu-larly experienced in evaluating speci-mens when they set the sales price.
Why Bonsai Judging Is Not Popular Bonsai are living plants, but the fun-damental attempt to create beauty is not different from other art forms. It is not popular to discuss judging evalu-ations in the field of bonsai when compared to other art fields, such as music, painting and sculpture which have a long history of judging.
There are two basic reasons why bonsai are not actively judged. The reasons are international and are applicable to every country and specific society.
1. Personal Attachment
Many bonsai fanciers, including pro-fessionals, purely love their bonsai as their living partner in life. Often this is not a short time period together and some consider bonsai like family. In other words, without tender loving care, a fine bonsai may be destroyed. Some simply enjoy providing care to living things.
2. Personal Feelings And Pride
Poor evaluations may give damage to the owner's pride if not done con-structively and fairly. Even if a bonsai fancier agrees to exhibit his tree in public, he may not be willing to accept a poor evaluation. This often creates stressful relationships, espe-cially when the judging score is made public.
In the case of professional bonsai artists, a poor evaluation may cause serious economic damage. As humans, it is common in our society to expect fine evaluations.
Learning Through Bonsai Critiques
Bonsai are often critiqued when dis-played at bonsai exhibitions, espe-cially at conventions, symposia, soci-ety meetings and even among bonsai fanciers.
Occasionally the guidelines for evaluating bonsai are presented before judging, but more often they are not clearly stated. Seeking and understanding evaluation details is one of the best ways to learn "what is bonsai art" and "what factors determine the beauty of bonsai". A constructive judging evaluation will increase the knowledge of a fanciers.
A Basis For Evaluating Bonsai
During the Conifer Bonsai Symposium, sponsored by International BONSAI in September 1993, Yuji Yoshimura presented his "Factors For Evaluating Bonsai¾ at his exhibit critique for the first time in public. Since it was so well received, the topic has been deeply researched and studied.
Details For 1994 Yoshimura - Valavanis Guidelines
Since bonsai is a living horticultural art form, the factors have been divided into two sections: horticultural aspects and aesthetic aspects.
A perfect or excellent score for the evaluation is 100 points, comprised of 25 points for horticultural aspects and 75 points for aesthetic aspects. These points, however, may be quite different between bonsai artists according to their personal concepts of the art.
A person considering beauty may be likely to give 80 points or more to the aesthetic aspects. However, it is important to realize that the tree is only the media, it must also be alive, healthy and growing. Therefore, prob-ably 75 points will be maximum for the aesthetic aspects.
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