Aman fished for koi beneath the spreading branches of a Japanese garden juniper, a few yards away from a blooming azalea tree. There were more juniper nearby, along with Chinese elm, golden cypress and ficus.
But none of them were more than 2 feet tall. The man fishing for koi was a figurine, and the garden juniper was a carefully pruned miniature: a bonsai.
Dozens of bonsai were on display Friday and Saturday at the Wailoa Center, part of a program hosted by the Mokuhonua Bonsai Club and Hilo Bonsai Kyoshitsu. Displays of ikebana (flower arrangement) by Mokichi Okada Association Sangetsu Kohrinka also were featured, as was suiseki (the study and appreciation of stones).
Ongoing demonstrations were intended to demystify ikebana, said presenter Alton Higaki. People attending learned to make a one-flower arrangement.
“In a few minutes, they can do something beautiful,” Higaki said. “They can incorporate it into their daily lives.”
“We try to teach them respect for the living flowers and branches,” he said. Ikebana is a way of understanding “the beauty of nature and the power of nature.”
The same basic principles apply to bonsai.
Throughout the morning, members of the bonsai clubs answered questions about the Japanese art forms, helping newcomers and veterans alike. Experienced artists brought their plants to a workshop table for bonsai troubleshooting, while the beginners made small bonsai of Schefflera plants.
Deb Scrivens of Hakalau said she became interested in bonsai while living in Portland, Ore., but never had the chance to start learning and practicing the art herself.
“What’s amazing is everything I love about a tree is right here, but in miniature,” she said. “It slows you down to appreciate it — it’s really meditative.”
“We’ll see how this one does,” Scrivens said of her new Schefflera plant in its moss-covered rock.
Patience is crucial to cultivating bonsai, said Mel Honda of Hilo Bonsai Kyoshitsu. Honda started working with bonsai nine years ago after he retired, and is one of 20 members of a weekly class at the Kamana Senior Center.
His first bonsai was a type of cypress tree.
“I was a real newbie, but I got my tools and got my wires, and learned to prune from the old-timers,” he said. Honda now has about 30 bonsai he is cultivating.
“The best part is the plants don’t talk to you,” he joked. “They don’t tell you not to cut their branches.”
Upstairs on the gallery floor of the Wailoa Center, a handful of “bonsai-in-training” were on display, still showing the thick wires around their branches that, over time, sculpt the tree. But for visitors such as Matthew Sueda, who will be visiting Japan soon and wanted to learn more about bonsai before going, the behind-the-scenes look didn’t take away from the final product.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “So much work.”
Cultivating bonsai is considered one of the highest forms of art in Japan, said Clyde Abelaye, who teaches the Kamana Senior Center class. Abelaye and John Murashita taught short clinics at the Saturday event as well.
The early stages of learning bonsai are fairly simple, as beginners work to master the essentials of keeping their plant alive as they water, fertilize, prune, repot and transplant it.
“Once they get the basics, then we go into the styling process,” Abelaye said.
That process is more philosophical, he said, and more complicated.
He indicated the landscape outside of the Wailoa Center.
“Bonsai is how to mimic this,” he said. “It’s a philosophy of what nature has to offer us.”
Abelaye’s parents first brought home a bonsai in 1974, and he and his younger brother helped with its care. Abelaye took his first bonsai class in 1982.
At one pint, Abelaye had a pine tree bonsai that was likely 150 years old: It was started from a seed planted in Maui’s Iao Valley and given to Abelaye by a friend whose great-grandfather had brought it from Japan.
Today, his oldest plant is a 60-year-old ficus.
A ficus on display Saturday was made of nine individual trees that had been grafted together.
This method increases the thickness of the trunk, making the tree appear older.
In Japan, bonsai often are passed down from generation to generation, since trees have longer lifespans than people. That aspect isn’t as common in America, but Abelaye hopes that one day it will be.
“I just hope more people have the opportunity to learn about it,” he said. The Kamana Senior Center class is currently the only one available in Hilo.
Learning to work with bonsai is “not like learning a foreign language,” Abelaye said, that is, it’s not easy to learn via an internet tutorial.
“I think hands-on is probably the best way,” Abelaye said. Plus, he said, “people should not view bonsai as a hobby for retired people,” he said. “The tree will outlive everyone anyway.”
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
