corylus avellana literati or not literati..

[bodhidharma]

Fellow Bonsai enthusiasts i humbly put up this contorted Hazel for discussion as to its style, which i would have called Literati. But is it to big, does it have enough branches and would it fit into this criteria. Its story is a sad one. It was purchased by a friend of mine who knew absolutely nothing about Bonsai, at a garage sale of all places, and, as i said,he knew nothing about bonsai. He took his purchase home and after about a year decided it was to much to look after in its pot and planted it in the ground. now this tree was supposedly 50 years old and had been potted all that time, not in a bonsai pot but one of those big tub ones. The old lady had grown it all its life and was a good friend of the fellow who bought it.( she did not know what he did) Anyway this is country Victoria and this fellow goes overseas a lot and exotics do not do well in our neck of the woods if they are not watered and fed.Please guess the rest. When i visited and saw this tree and what he had done to it i immediately gave my opinion as to what should happen from there. He is a student of mine and that gave me a bit of clout. i began to feed and water the tree slowly to try and save it but half, yes half of the tree had died. It has taken 4 years to try and bring the tree to health and half of the tree has been cut of along with all the dead branches on the live side. What you see is the only bit of life left on the tree and i dont know why other branches dont grow lower when i can get life on top. Yes, it is in a wrong pot because i am still working on it and yes its roots need work and the carving is nowhere near finished. The question is, is it, or is it not Literati. Lets open the discussion.

[Watto]

I'll kick off with "literati" in training.

[Jamie]

this is interesting bod, its is a hard call to say what style it is i mean it has some feature which say literati then some say sorta no???
with the trunk being so thick and little movement i say no, but with a whole heap of carving adding movement to the trunk then it could be due to its lack of foliage right at the top, i wonder why you cant get any growth down lower? to me this would be more of an informal upright if you could get more branching and growth down low. yet with its trunk being so bare and lack of foliage at the top it say literati.

overall it has potential

and yes i agree, it is a sad story for sure.

regards jamie

edit just after watto posted- i tend to lead to this aswell, in training. if more carving is done adding movement and character to the trunk i think you could pull it off mate

[anttal63]

hey bodhi this is a sad story sorry to see such a tree endure this.

but we move on; and do the best with what we got and still make it a great tree in time. literate by its true meaning does not present this much taper how ever, the minumalist form we have here does give the feeling of a literate. i say yes!

[bodhidharma]

Thank you Gentlemen for your input. I am glad people are starting to participate

[Pup]

Thank you Gentlemen for your input. I am glad people are starting to participate

I am sorry as stated I cannot join in unless there is no comp. Although I will read the post's with interest Pup

[Gerard]

Hi all,
I suggest this is not literati.
My understanding of the word literati.......scholars academics and professors of ancient China, those who were responsible for the writings and drawings on ancient paper scrolls.
Many of these drawings depicted tall distoted trees, I believe that it was these scholars who have inspired a bonsai style.
It is the only style which does not really occur naturally. I believe it to be pure art, originally drawings and in more recent times living trees. (my favorite style)
Dont take my word, I am no historian but I hope you like my theory.
Bodi's tree is tortured and contorted, it tells a story.....but a different story

Gerard

[Pup]

Hi all,
I suggest this is not literati.
My understanding of the word literati.......scholars academics and professors of ancient China, those who were responsible for the writings and drawings on ancient paper scrolls.
Many of these drawings depicted tall distoted trees, I believe that it was these scholars who have inspired a bonsai style.
It is the only style which does not really occur naturally. I believe it to be pure art, originally drawings and in more recent times living trees. (my favorite style)
Dont take my word, I am no historian but I hope you like my theory.
Bodi's tree is tortured and contorted, it tells a story.....but a different story

Gerard

I should not get involved in this BUT it does occur naturally. If you have a look at the Mustard seed Garden book and look at the paintings of natural occurring tree's which is where the style originates. Bohdi if you can get hold of a copy of Robert Stevens book it might help you.

Pup

[Gerard]

Thanks Pup,
an excelllent book, by the way Robert Steven is in Melbourne in 3 weeks for workshops and demonstrations at Northwest

[bodhidharma]

Thanks Pup i will do. A bit disappointing not more people are getting involved. Maybe this indicates how much of a grey area Literati(binjingi) really is. We, as westerners are not really sure. And, yes, i have definitely seen literati in nature, even in eucs.

[Jonden]

Hi Bodhi,
This tree has a lot of potential, more so as a Bunjin rather than a Literati. If you can develop the foliage mass a lot more you can get away wit having the thicker heavier looking trunk, but i would still do some carving to give more character. Bunjin is the Japanese equivelant of Chinese Literati. Bunjin usually has a shorter thicker trunk in relation to height and a larger more defined mass of foliage, whereas Literati is tall and thin with sparse light pads of foliage.
I hope this helps.
Cheers, Jonden

[Pup]

I find that a very interesting analogy. I have seen the Kokufu Books of quite a few of the show,s and see many tall slim Bunjingi.

[bodhidharma]

I know this tree is totally hollow inside as it was hosting a colony of ants when it was taken from the ground. It had extensive work inside the trunk to stop its premature death. I spent two hours on a rainy day cleaning inside the trunk and and stopping rot work( read lime sulphering up to the elbows) and there was no intimacy that night i tell you. I think i will split the tree in half once it is healthy and present it as a hollow trunk as it is a big tree 800mm tall and 170mm at the base but i am reading with interest as to the interpretations of what we consider the style to be.

[Bretts]

If I saw this tree I would probably say it ws literati or at least an attempt at literati. But as I am far from any expert only knowing what I have read as summary of others studies it would be a layman's educated guess.
I know Pup has been saying that literati or binjingi has little to no taper. I preferred the interpretation that taper is not necessary.
I have seen it written differently such as by will heath who also has an interest in this style.

■Taper. It is often said that taper is not an important consideration in Literati, but this is untrue in most cases. As with all trees taper plays an important role in the overall visual effect and in perspective.

Now I do not put Will forward as any expert "far from it" but this is also my understanding of various articles on the subject( I have written ) edit I have read . Part of the attraction for me is how thin taper is used so delicately to create such a believable form. Yet there are trees that are aimed to be styled in the literati form that do have more considerable taper now whether these trees fit into the guidlines for literati or binjingi then it seems a great deal of study is in order back to the origins of what the literati men thought constituted literati.
I was just reading Debs book Bonsai art science history philosophy and she states the guidlines for the form as
"First it is a single trunk" "The trunk may be straight curved or angular, but it must taper and if it is not straight, the line must move in three dimensions to give depth to the design. One half to three quarters of the trunk should be bare of branches and the branches themselves should be few in number and usually short in proportion to the height of the tree...."
She then goes on to state that as time passed the masses started to create literati and variations resulted some degraded the style and others where quite beautiful. Some of these forms are Gnarled trunk with jin and deadwood, Angular literati style(exagerated curves) Literati with bowed head(apex is trunk bending down), cascade literati. two setting tree, group setting.
So it seems that many of the forms we accept as literati may indeed not technically be literati.

I never new a difference between literati and binjingi until Pup mentioned it. Maybe you have already explained this difference to some degree in another thread Pup but I would very much like to hear what the actual difference is between Literati and binjingi. I don't think this will cause any issue with the competition in fact I think this highlights as you say the need to clarify the style of Literati Binjingi as it will be judged in the competition.
Even when looking at all the facts I am sure there is variation in interpretation of history so we need to get an understanding of our judges interpretation.

[bodhidharma]

Thanks Brett, she also presents a nice Literati black Pine in her book. I have seen many Literati with their heads bowed. I do like them like that. i wonder if it is an exaggeration of the tree bowing towards you as you approach. I also wonder that with literati, as the style is quite specific, that it became limiting to some Artists so they started bending the rules to make their design a little different and unique and they would be recognised for that. When i was last in queensland my good friend and fellow Bonsai man was talking about a style that i never had heard of before and that was Savannah style. I guess we have to progress.