Introduction of Shohin Bonsai and Mame Bonsai

You perhaps know that bonsai are the miniaturized versions of the big, aged trees found in nature. But do you know that bonsai have their small-sized versions as well? These trees are commonly known as shohin bonsai and mame bonsai.

“Shohin” is a Japanese word. It means “tiny thing” and in the bonsai world, shohin bonsai means trees that are within a certain size, 6″ – 8″ to be specific. As for “mame”, it is a Japanese word that means “bean”. In terms of bonsai, it is the mini bonsai between 3″ – 6″. And as mame bonsai and shohin bonsai are so tiny; they can easily fit onto our hand.

The Challenges of Training Shohin Bonsai and Mame Bonsai

Creating small bonsai is definitely an uneasy task. The bonsai tools one normally uses may be too big for shohin bonsai or mame bonsai. One has to create the image of an old tree with the very little amount of soil and foliage in mini bonsai. It becomes important to totally understand the dynamics of plant growth in such a constricted environment. Moreover, with the restricted amount of branches and foliage in a shohin bonsai, or even smaller, in a mame bonsai, the bonsai artist has to use lots of imagination when he/she visualizes the bonsai.

The Lure of Shohin and Mame Bonsai Tree

While shohin bonsai and mame bonsai tree are very uneasy and require lots of time and attention, these tiny bonsai definitely have their advantages that captivate so many bonsai lovers. Just as those gorgeous Chinese figurine, small bonsai is perfect for home decoration. With little space, apartment dwellers can also enjoy the fun of bonsai on a small scale. And without the use of a turn table, we can just pick up our mame bonsai tree, twist and turn the bonsai trees with ease to examine the structure, roots, and trunk of the trees. We can comfortably bring our shohin bonsai tree to the living room, find a table and examine our shohin bonsai tree before pruning and trimming the tree.

Visit our bonsai blog – Happy Bonsai for more bonsai hints, basic bonsai knowledge and experience.

This entry was posted on September 23, 2010 at 7:46 am and is filed under Baby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.