Bonsai Trees 2012 Forever Stamps — Cultural Heritage Collection

Issue facts

Issue Date: January 23, 2012
City: Sacramento, CA
Printed by: Ashton Potter
Printing Method: Offset
Color: Multicolored

Buddhist origins

Bonsai came to Japan with Buddhist monks more than a thousand years ago. They took saplings from the wild and shaped them through sustained, patient pruning — an exercise in simplicity as much as horticulture.

The rules of the form

Scale. A bonsai may stand two inches or over two feet. Whatever its height, a mature specimen must read as a full-sized tree, achieved by pruning branches and roots together.

Proportion. Leaves, flowers and fruit are selected so that nothing overwhelms the trunk, and the container is chosen to sit in balance with the tree rather than compete with it.

Asymmetry. The tree is deliberately placed off-center, for reasons both spiritual and compositional, and branch placement and trunk shaping follow the same principle.

Concealment. A finished bonsai should look like nature, not craft. Pruning scars are hidden and shaping wire is removed before it can mark the bark, so that the work disappears and only the tree remains.

Why it endures

A bonsai is alive, and therefore temporary — which is the Buddhist teaching on impermanence rendered in wood. The peace on offer is not in permanence but in attending closely to something beautiful while it is here.

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