Classic Bonsai Species of Japan

Japonista Universe › Volume V

Japanese bonsai is built on a small number of classic species, admired for how they age, how they answer to training and how they mark the seasons. Growers divide them into conifers, shōhaku 松柏, the evergreen backbone of the art, and deciduous, flowering and fruiting trees, zōki 雑木.

Conifers

• Japanese black pine, kuromatsu 黒松: bold, rough-barked, the masculine ideal of the pine.
• Japanese white pine, goyōmatsu 五葉松: five-needled, soft and silvery, often grafted.
• Shimpaku juniper, shinpaku 真柏: famous for twisting live veins and white deadwood.
• Needle juniper, toshō 杜松, and Hinoki cypress, hinoki 檜.

Deciduous trees

• Japanese maple, momiji 紅葉, and trident maple, kaede 楓: autumn colour and fine branching.
• Zelkova, keyaki 欅: the classic broom style.
• Beech, buna 橅: pale bark and dry leaves held through winter.

Flowering and fruiting trees

• Satsuki azalea, satsuki 皋月: flowers in early summer, often in several colours on one tree.
• Flowering apricot, ume 梅: blossom in the cold of late winter.
• Quince, boke 木瓜, crab apple, kaidō 海棠, and persimmon, kaki 柿.

Species and pots

Tradition pairs conifers with unglazed, earthy pots in brown, purple and grey, and flowering and deciduous trees with glazed pots whose colour answers the flowers, leaves or fruit. See Bonsai Pots.

Collecting notes

• Many of these species cannot be sent abroad as living plants, or only through registered nurseries and quarantine. See Sending Bonsai Abroad.
• The same seasonal flowers appear on pots, lacquer and textiles; a satsuki or ume motif links a bonsai display to the wider Japanese year.

In the collection

Browse bonsai and suiseki. Our curator desk can search Japan for a particular pot, stone or stand; replies follow within 1–3 business days.

See also

• Bonsai Styles
• Akadama, Kanuma and Kiryu
• Traditional Japanese Colours