Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

A curious display

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I’ll keep this post simple – does anyone know the story behind this display from last month’s Taikan-ten?

Display with figures

Figures on burl wood

Close-up

Box of figures

 

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  2. Please let us know if someone answers this. It is very odd. Beautiful burl. Interesting box of concretions. And then there is some other incongruous stuff off camera.

  6. Looks like Eurasian Land Btidge between Japanese Mountains and China or a transition from mountain life to city life.

  9. I’ll hazard a guess that the torso-exposed figures are precarious survivors on life rafts in a roiling sea– perhaps, during a tsunami..Alternatively, the figures could represent the zombie apocalypse, which begins in yonder foothills. Neither suggests the quiet, solemn harmony of man and nature that is often expressed as the Japanese spirit in bonsai & suiseki communities. Is the depiction intended to be a bit surprising & disorienting? At Taikanten, the selection and arrangement of objects in a display are sometimes eccentric & intended to ignore tradition.

  10. Well the translations prove somewhat less enlightening than hoped.

    Translation of the note cards from left to right:
    • Mining Rodeo Drive (Fifth Avenue)
    • Wishes of a girl (virgin)
    • (address & name)
    • (title) Mount Hiei (name of famous mountain in Kyoto where is known by a world heritage Enryakuji.

    Happy holidays to all!

  12. I would suggest that the scene represents the 1571 Siege of Mount Hiei. Googling Mt Hiei turned up two articles on Wikipedia re this. The translations by Vicki were the key. Mining is a military technique of planting hidden explosives. The long forms in front with figurines are boats carrying the warriors. The burl represents the town that was destroyed and the stone identifies the place exactly.

    Oda Nobunaga led 30,000 men in destroying towns and temples on the mountain and near its base. This event would mark the end of the great power of Mt. Hiei’s warrior monks.

    John Miller