Bonsai in literature

The first half of the January Meeting of the Columbus Bonsai Society was a presentation about bonsai history.  One of the minor points jumped out at me. It hit what you may refer to as the ‘nerd trifecta’ : bonsai, history and theatre. Dan mentioned a classic piece of Japanese literature. Hacki-no-ki, usually translated as The Potted Trees is an ancient piece of Japanese theatre, a play based on a folktale from around the end of the 1300s.  For comparison, that’s about the time Geoffrey Chaucer would have been writing the Canterbury Tales, and Shakespeare wouldn’t be born for 184 years.

The play tells the story of Tsuneyo, a samurai who has lost his lands and position through the political maneuvers of others. One cold night a wandering monk knocks at their door, and Tsuneyo and his wife invite the traveler in.  They have little to offer in the way of comfort, but share what they can.

Here is some important dialogue. Notice the formal style of the language:

Tsuneyo:	"How cold it is!  And as the night passes, each hour the frost grows keener.  If I had but fuel to light a fire with, that you might sit by it and warm yourself!  Ah!  I have thought of something.  I have some dwarf trees.  I will cut them down and make a fire out of them."
Monk:	"Have you indeed dwarf trees?"
Tsuneyo:	”Yes, when I was in the World [of society] I had a fine show of dwarfed trees; but when my trouble came, I had no more heart for tree fancying, and gave them away.  But three of them I kept -- plum, cherry, and pine.  Look, there they are covered with snow.  They are precious to me; yet for this night's entertainment, I will gladly set light to them."
Monk:	"No, no, that must not be.  I thank you for your kindness, but it is likely that one day you will go back to the world again and need them for your pleasure.  Indeed it is not to be thought of."
Tsuneyo:	“My life is like a tree the earth has covered; I shoot no blossoms upward to the world."
Wife:	"And should we burn for you these shrubs, these profitless toys."

An historical photo, taken of
a performance in 1931.

The Potted Trees is part of a Japanese drama form call Noh, which literally mean ‘talent’ such as the display of talent in performance. A feature of Noh drama is a very formal style of language, emphasis on intricately constructed sentences and very limited use of gestures to help emphasize particular words or phrases.   A chorus of speakers is seated behind the main acting area, and the things they say in unison  often comment on the action or help the audience know the main character’s thoughts.

As the three bonsai are being chopped down, the chorus chants:

Shall I from one who has cast life aside, dear life itself, withhold these trivial trees?'  Then he brushed the snow from off them, and when he looked, 'I cannot, cannot,' he cried.  'O beautiful trees, must I begin?'
     'You plum-tree, among bare boughs blossoming hard by the window, still on northward face snow-sealed, yet first to scent cold air with flowers, earliest of spring: you first shall fall... Hewn down for firewood.  Little had I thought my hand so pitiless!'
     'You cherry, because each spring your blossom comes behind the rest, I thought a lonely tree and reared you tenderly.  But now I, I am lonely left, and you, cut down, shall flower but with flame.'
     'You now, O pine, whose branches I had thought one day when you were old to lop and trim, standing you as a post in the field, such use shall never know.  Tree, whom the winds have ever wreathed with quaking mists, now shimmering in the flame shall burn and burn...'"

From this picture of sadness, the play does end happily. The monk is in fact a high government official, travelling in disguise to see what things are like with the common people.  Impressed by Tsuneyo’s kindness and loyalty, the poor samurai  is restored to his lands, and has additional estates granted to him, the name of each of these containing the words “Ume” (plum), “Sakura” (cherry) and “Matsu” (pine) , referencing the sacrificed trees.

Many Noh plays utilize masks. They are made of Cypress
 wood-what bonsai growers know as hinoki!

Noh plays use no scenery-the backdrop is always
 the same image-a traditional Japanese pine 

Bonsai is often referred to as an ancient art.  The fact that the keeping of trees in pots would be a plot point in a piece of popular entertainment, that most people would understand and be familiar with, show that  what is no referred to as bonsai must have be widely practiced at the time this play was being preformed, that’s about 600 years or so! Interesting to note that at the time the play was written, the growing of trees in containers was called by the phrase used as the work’s title Hachi-no-ki ( literally “the bowl’s tree”). Bonsai (“the tray’s plant”)  became the more usual term  in Japan in the mid 1700’s, and is how the rest of the world refers to the practice even today.  It’s hard to know exactly what a bonsai of that ancient time period looked like, but it is probable that if three bonsai could serve to make a worthwhile fire, that had to be fairly large-no shohin!