Bonsai styles: brief information for the beginner
The two main styles of Bonsai are the classic (which is also known as “kotenâ€?) and the informal or ‘comic’ (called “bunjinâ€?). In first one the trunk of the dwarf tree is wider at the base and converges towards the top; it is just the opposite of the ‘bunjin’, which is more difficult to master.
Over the years, Bonsai growers have often tried to change the classification of the styles, and their many sub-divisions. But once you understand the principles of division into these styles, you will have a benchmark to compare potential for Bonsai and to decide what style suits it.
If you study very attentively the way trees grow in nature, you may design a realistic Bonsai without knowing the names of these various styles.
When you start growing Bonsai, do not forget that you are working with a living tree and look carefully at its natural characteristics and requirements. All coniferous trees are unsuitable to the ‘broom’ style, for example, but are very suitable for all other styles, in particular to formal and informal upright. Often you can grow a plant into several styles, and even if one style only really suits a particular plant, you all the same can interpret this in many different ways.
Azaleas, which are shrubs and do not grow like trees in nature have fewer restrictions in the style, but as a rule, it would be better to choose any design on the way the plant grows in nature.