Commonly Used Bonsai Terminology - Explained

In this YouTube video I am going to talk about commonly used Japanese bonsai terms or terminology. There has been a trend in the last few years that means more people use Japanese bonsai terms and you should be aware of the most common ones used.

We will meet the Tanuki, the mythical animal (though they do exist in Japan) the Japanese call it a badger dog which can be found outside restaurants and are there to welcome the guests. They are loveable rogues, mischievous but not nasty or bad in any way but they are out to trick you. When the term Tanuki is used in bonsai we are referring to a tree that has a false piece of driftwood. You aren’t actually carving driftwood it is artificial, made by wrapping a live tree around a dead piece of wood.

Jin means a piece of driftwood thats at the extremity of the branches and has stripped of the bark and made white

Shari is the white driftwood that you find on the trunk.

Yamadori means collected from the mountains.

Nebari in Japanese refers to the surface roots you find on a bonsai. The quality of a bonsai is determined by the quality of its surface roots. if a bonsai doesn’t have good surface roots we sometimes call them a telegraph pole. Good roots on a bonsai give a sense of stability and strength in the tree.

Niwaki simply means a garden tree in Japanese.

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