Saikei: Living Landscapes in Miniature

This is the first book in English to describe the techniques of saikei, the most recent innovation in the timeless Japanese art of miniaturized plant culture. Saikei embraces the esthetic traditions of bonsai but allows a greater freedom in composition. Its use of ordinary stones and seedlings makes it a perfect beginning point for the aspiring bonsai enthusiast, while the bonsai connoisseur can derive pleasure in organizing the young plants into saikei patterns while he is waiting for them to mature. Saikei compositions are best suited to simple cement or earthenware trays that can be kept indoors or out, offering the city apartment dweller with space limitations or the person with his own garden equal opportunity to engage in this fascinating hobby.

Saikei applies the same techniques used in bonsai for training trees to conform to desired shapes, but gives emphasis to the naturalness of the shape; a saikei tree appears as if its form had been determined by the terrain and weather conditions of its natural location, rather than by the hand of its grower. As you work with saikei, you will come to feel that these miniature landscapes differ only in size from the magnificence of nature's own compositions.

Written by the bonsai expert who established the saikei school, this book provides the reader with his personal criteria of the esthetic elements necessary in a good saikei, as well as detailed instruction in planting skills. Compositions and techniques are thoroughly illustrated in more than 100 diagrams, over 200 black and white and 21 full-color photographs, including 16 color plates of saikei masterpieces, accompanied by numbered diagrams, lists of materials, and step-by-step instructions that enable you to create the same beautiful miniature landscapes in your own home.