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Starting a tree in a raised bed and systematically reducing its container size, roots, and foliage is a common starting process for styling a bonsai tree. Combine this with growing a sacrificial branch to thicken the trunk girth, using a tourniquet to add taper.
The true art of bonsai is to replicate tree forms found in nature. Trees grow upright or slanting, in groups, pairs, or alone, out on plains or clinging to the sides of mountains.
They are subject to natural forces – lightning, wind, drought, animals, insects, diseases, and floods. These forces change shape, strip bark, and break branches.
Trees in nature gain character as time passes; we call it weathering. When sculpting a tree, bonsai artists look at what nature produces using these principles and try to mimic it, but they also add their own vision to make a beautiful bonsai. Because of this, a bonsai tree is much more than just a tree in a pot.
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Formal and Comic Bonsai Styles
- Formal or koten
- Informal (comic) or bunjin
There are two main types of bonsai: the formal (koten) classic style and the informal or comic style (bunjin). In the former, the tree’s trunk is wider at the base and tapers off toward the top; in the latter, the style known as “bunjin,” which is more challenging to master, is the exact opposite.
The goal of every bonsai, whether formal or comic, is to make your bonsai trees appear as natural as possible. Let the tree come up with its ideas. Allow the trunk to bend to the right if it does so naturally. Work with it to make it your bonsai’s focal feature.
It is helpful to pay attention to the tree’s natural inclination and to cooperate. Together you’ll produce a stunning design.
Preconceived notions need to be set aside, working with what you have. Every tree is different and uniquely beautiful, and it’s up to you to emphasize its natural traits and unique character.
Above all else, you shouldn’t attempt to train a bonsai to develop unnaturally. Examine the species’ varied natural development patterns before you plant it, and then accentuate certain elements for the best results.
To project the appearance of maturity in your tree’s diminutive form, you should consider how you can depict an aging tree. Even if your tree is still young, you can groom it to make it appear like it has been developing for many years.
The Six Basic Bonsai Styles Based on the Trunk’s Orientation
Tree forms are grouped into five identities which derive their names from the tree’s angle of growth, trunk shape, and the arrangement of their branches. Some tree shapes are not sufficiently unique to warrant a separate category.
These six canonical tree shapes are recognized:
- Formal upright or Chokkan
- Informal upright or Moyogi
- Slanting or Shakan
- Full Cascade or Kengai
- Semi Cascade or Han-Kengai
- Multi-trunk Cascade or Takan-Kengai
The system of styles has a variety of functions, some useful and some purely aesthetic. The most basic and widespread use of styles is a shorthand for describing bonsai specimens.
The succinct style word, typically in catalog descriptions and a species identifier, concisely characterizes the bonsai in question.
Similar specimens can be grouped in bonsai competitions for comparative analysis using style names.
The approach simplifies bonsai teaching and learning and offers generally accepted phrases (Canononical) for public communications on bonsai, even when viewing the styles only as descriptive names.
Formal Upright Style | Chokkan
Formal upright trees thrive in the wild when allowed to grow in the open without stress.
The trunk’s perfect straightness and natural, smooth tapering from the base to the apex are the most crucial requirements for this style.
To appear balanced from any angle, the branches should be symmetrically spaced. It takes a lot of effort to get Chokkan bonsai perfect.
Try growing pines, junipers, and spruces using the Chokkan style.
A third or so of the trunk must be seen from the front for the formal upright design to be effective. You’re stacking two triangles on top of each other – a tapered trunk supporting a larger triangle, the tapering branches – no circles or squares.
Typically, branch placement follows a pattern, with the first branch being the longest and emerging square from the trunk a third up. This is the heaviest branch, and the second branch is slightly higher than but opposite the first.
The branch structure tapers and takes on a slightly cone-like shape as it ascends. It can be challenging to perceive the bonsai’s interior structure through the mass of leaves or needles because the top of the tree is typically covered in foliage that is so lush and tightly ramified.
With each new year, the growing tip of the trunk or branch is removed, and a new branch is wired into place to form the apex, giving the branches and trunk of a formal upright bonsai a very distinct taper.
Although this can be difficult, as the trunk develops and the taper becomes more obvious, it gives a magnificent effect.
Informal Upright Style | Moyogi
Such trees naturally slant or change their direction to block the wind, provide shade for nearby trees or structures, or move closer to the sun.
A casual upright bonsai should have a trunk that slightly bends to the right or left but never in the viewer’s direction.
This is true for all bonsai-style varieties. When the bonsai is seen from the front, neither the trunk nor the branches should be pointed in the observer’s direction.
For this design, consider a member of the maple family or virtually any decorative conifer. A blossoming tree, such as a pomegranate, will produce a striking outcome.
The main difference between this style and a formal upright bonsai is an allowance for curved trunks and liberty with branch arrangements.
The tree is reminiscent of one shaped by other challenges, causing it to redirect its trunk once or twice, but the outline is still triangular.
The tree’s crown is covered in foliage and, despite the informal trunk, is almost always situated directly above the tree’s base, just like the formal upright design.
If there is no alignment between the apex and the truck, the tree will be classified as Shakan (slanting).
The Moyogi style lends itself to including Jin, the remains of dead or undesired branches carved to resemble decaying and rotting tree limbs.
Slanting Style | Shakan
Due to strong winds or dense shade during early development, trees adjust and can naturally lean in the wind’s direction or towards the light.
The entire trunk has a fixed lean angle, whether curved or straight. The stronger roots develop on the opposite side of the tree’s lean direction to support the weight.
Almost any tree species will look good with this style, which mimics the informal upright but is slanted. The trunk can be either straight or curved, but it must be at an angle to the viewer’s right or left, and the apex must not be immediately over the bonsai’s base.
This style is quite a simple one that several methods can achieve. At an early age, the bonsai can be trained to an angle using wiring the trunk until it is in position.
Alternatively, the tree can be forced to grow slanted by putting the pot on a slant, causing the tree to grow erect but at an artificial angle.
Full Cascade Style | Kengai
A cascade bonsai’s growing tip extends below the container’s base. The trunk has a natural taper, which provides the sense that natural forces are pulling against gravity. Branches seem to be reaching for the sun. The main trunk’s looping shape suggests a creek trickling down a mountainside.
A cascade bonsai can be created using a variety of trees. Here, it’s important to ensure the tree isn’t inherently straight and upright; you shouldn’t try to make a naturally straight-trunk tree into a bonsai with a cascading trunk.
This bonsai design can be very aesthetically beautiful if done correctly. The tapering trunk extends below the container and looks like the tree is being pulled downward by the forces of gravity.
Along with its gracefully alternating branches, the tree trunk twists to resemble a meandering stream.
A species of plant will gladly adopt this style if trained, and all that is needed to make it is a tall, narrow container that will emphasize the style and accommodate the cascade.
Wire the main trunk to pour over and down the edge of the pot, paying special attention to the big bend (forming an upside-down U shape).
It’s important to maintain the branches’ uniformity and horizontality to the trunk’s nearly vertical orientation.
Another crucial point to remember is that contrary to how you would place any other design, cascade and semi-cascade should be placed directly in the center of the pot.
Semi-Cascade Style | Han-Kengai
Like the cascade, the semi-cascade’s tip extends over the container’s rim but does not touch the ground. In nature, the design can be seen in trees that cling to cliffs or dangling over the water.
Even though the plant grows far below the level of the pot rim, the bonsai’s trunk angle is not exact as long as the effect is firmly horizontal, and visible roots should offset the trunk.
Even though the plant grows far below the level of the pot rim, the bonsai’s trunk angle is not exact as long as the effect is firmly horizontal, and visible roots should offset the trunk.
This bonsai design makes cherry trees, cedars, and junipers look spectacular.
The Han-Kengai bonsai style is regarded by many as the pinnacle of artistic beauty.
Growing bonsai is generally appreciated as a complex art form cultivated over millennia.
Multi-Trunk Cascade | Takan-Kengai
This style’s inclusion in the basic styles is debatable. Nevertheless, I am mentioning it because Japanese literature frequently refers to it.
The bonsai shapes Kengai and Takan, in which Kengai conveys nature’s harshness and Takan expresses its grandeur, are exquisitely combined in the Takan-Kengai style.
Balance is a key component of both designs.
A two-trunk tree from the bottom or middle is called a “Sokan.” If the trunk divides the tree into three is called “Sankan,” and a trunk divided into five is called “Gokan.” Including “Sokan,” they are called “Takan (a tree having many trunks).”
There is the main trunk, and the others are the attached trunks. The balance of these trunks is essential for its beauty: the more trunks a tree has, the more difficult it is to depict a balance.
25 Variations to the 6 Basic Bonsai Styles
| Trunk and Bark Surface Variance | |
| Deadwood | Sabamiki |
| Driftwood | Sharimiki |
| Trunk and Root Placement | |
| Root-over-rock | Sekijoju |
| Exposed-root | Neagari |
| Clinging-to-a-rock | Ishizuke, ishitsuki |
| Multiple trunks from a single root | |
| Twin-trunk, two-trunk | Sokan |
| Three-trunk | Sankan |
| Five-trunk | Gokan |
| Seven-trunk | Nanakan |
| Nine-trunk | Kyukan |
| Clump | Kabudachi, Kabubuki |
| Turtle, stump | Korabuki |
| Raft, straight-line | Ikadabuki |
| Raft, sinuous | Netsunagari, Netsuranari |
| Multiple trunks on own roots | |
| Two-tree | Soju |
| Three-tree | Sambon-yose |
| Five-tree | Gohon-yose |
| Seven-tree | Nanahon-yose |
| Nine-tree | Kyuhon-yose |
| Forest | Yose-ue |
| Other Styles | |
| Literati | Bunjingi |
| Broom | Hokidachi |
| Octopus | Takozukuri |
| Wind-swept | Fukinagashi |
Trunk and Bark Surface Variance
Deadwood | Sabamiki
The style depicts tree trauma and helps create an aging effect, replicating natural trees damaged by lightning or falling trees causing trunk damage. Sabamiki is effective on conifers, deciduous species, and broadleaf evergreens.
The hollowed trunk is typically chiseled, leaving a hollow that might be as small as a shallow scar or as deep as the trunk.
Driftwood | Sharimiki
The effect is a tree with an exposed, often sandblasted trunk free of bark. In nature, trees in the sharimiki style are the product of physical damage, disease, age, and weathering.
To ensure continued nutrient and water supply to the remainder of the tree, at least one strip of live bark must remain intact. Regardless of the tree’s conformation, the bared trunk sections offer a strong feeling of age and untold but imagined stories.
Trunk and Root Placement
Root-over-rock | Sekijoju
In nature, a seed may find good soil in a rock crevice to germinate. This is often the case with xerophytes that require very little water to survive.
Like epiphytes that live on trees, these plants send their roots out until they find water and nutrient-containing soil.
This effect is achieved in bonsai by spreading roots over a rock and letting them grow. When the plant is potted, one method of accomplishing this is to bury the rock within the roots, allowing them to grow for a few years before gradually exposing them to harden off, as is done with the exposed root style.
Exposed-root | Neagari
In the natural world, rain and weather can erode soil from a tree’s base, gradually exposing its roots over time. This effect is emphasized by bonsai artists, who display a lot of root structure.
This effect must be gradually built up by exposing only a small portion of the root each year and letting the exposed region harden.
Clinging-to-a-rock | Ishizuke, ishitsuki
Tree roots are tenacious and can grow in the soil contained within nooks and crannies of rocks. The rock may provide a simple initial container, with the roots moving from crevice to crevice, accessing limited nutrients.
The roots are so intertwined with the rock that it is inseparable, growing close to it and following its contours.
Multiple Trunks From a Single Root
Twin-trunk | Sokan
In this design, a tree with two trunks is shown. Typically, two trees with various diameters’ trunks have grown together at the base and are now fashioned as a single tree. Between the trunks, no branches may develop.
Three-trunk | Sankan
Three tree trunks emerge from various roots; a dominant trunk is typically the thickest and tallest. Reduce symmetry and create the most natural effect possible by avoiding a linear arrangement.
Five-trunk | Gokan
The Gokan style modifies the Sankan style’s stylistic restrictions by allowing the placement of a second dominating tree.
This tree is inferior to the biggest but still bigger than the rest. Seven-trunk, nine-trunk, forest, and other bigger-numbered group types also permit a second or third tree to dominate other groups of trees within the broader design.
Seven-trunk | Nanakan
See Gokan above
Nine-trunk | Kyukan
See Gokan above
Clump | Kabudachi, Kabubuki
A tree with several trunks can emerge when a cone or fruit with numerous seeds falls on fertile ground, and several trees sprout simultaneously.
Each trunk contests for light, causing a slightly flared shape within the group. Bonsai artists can create the clump style by nestling several seedlings closely and shaping them to develop outward-reaching trunks.
Turtle, stump | Korabuki
This style resembles the clump style, but the trunks do not rise from a fairly flat surface root system. Instead, the ground-level roots form a domed or turtle-back shape, and the multiple trunks rise from it.
Raft, straight-line | Ikadabuki
This style replicates a natural occurrence resulting from a fallen tree. The exposed branches transform into trunks, in line with the original bough.
Beneath the fallen tree trunk, roots start forming, resulting in one fallen tree giving life to several others – all seeming to be growing from a raft.
Raft, sinuous | Netsunagari, Netsuranari
A woodland tree is harmed by a storm and blown over, shattering the branches on the downhill side, in the realistic scenario this style aims to imitate.
The remaining branches (growing vertically from the undamaged side of the trunk) eventually grow to seem like new trees joined by the old trunk as roots form from the trunk lying on the soil.
In bonsai, a wrong tree is wired and placed branchless side down, horizontally on the soil. The growth of roots is aided by nicking the bark to reveal the cambium layer on the bottom of the trunk and then dusting it with rooting powder.
A curved trunk produces a fascinating pattern of trees resembling a little grove than a straight trunk, typically resulting in a straight line of trees.
Similar to the straight-line raft, but with many bends in the underlying trunk. It doesn’t seem like the trees are growing from it in a straight line.
Multiple trunks on own roots
Two-tree | Soju
Conventional bonsai specimens use trees of the same species for all multiple-trunk forms, with a dominating, larger tree and a smaller one, similar to the Sokan style.
The Soju form allows for the placement of the two trees quite close together. They can also be distinguished since they do not have a common root.
Three-tree | Sambon-yoseBecause there are fewer trees, certain artistic objectives, such as having no more than two trees in a straight line, can be applied to these bonsai.
Instead of being categorized as forests, the three-tree through nine-tree styles are called group settings.
Although the trunk width and height of trees in groups vary, they typically resemble one another in proportion, foliage density, and other aesthetic qualities.
A single tree will take center stage in the three-tree design, and the size of the other two will typically vary and be smaller.
Five-tree | Gohon-yose
Similar to the Sambon-yose; however, there may be two dominant trees. One will be larger than the other, and the remaining three will be noticeably smaller.
Seven-tree | Nanahon-yose
Similar rules to the Gohon-yose above
Nine-tree | Kyuhon-yose
Similar rules to the Gohon-yose above
Forest | Yose-ue
Artists can use five or more trees to make bonsai resembling little or big woods. The forest may occasionally be designed to appear to extend far into the distance.
A far-view perspective can be achieved by placing smaller trees in front and increasingly larger ones behind.
Positioning larger plants in the front produces a different viewpoint—that of a viewer in the middle of the trees, gazing out at the forest that stretches beyond.
Use trees of various heights and diameters in every situation, and arrange them so that no three trees can be seen from the front or the side in a straight line.
Each tree is positioned at a unique distance from the others. A canopy resembling a scalene triangle is the overall result.
Other Styles
Literati | Bunjingi
The literati bonsai style aims to capture a tree’s essence. A literati has a stunning, delicate, distinctive trunk line with hardly any branches.
This look is frequently regarded as the most challenging to pull off. Only a skilled bonsai artist who has perfected every rule and produced stunning designs can defy convention and produce gorgeous literati.
Broom | Hokidachi
Old trees in orchards or along city streets are reminiscent of broom-style bonsai. An old tree is well reflected when deciduous species are trained to grow a crown of radial branches with many ramifications.
Certain broom styles have branches extending outward from a central point, while others have a primary trunk line that runs from the base of the trunk to the peak.
Octopus | Takozukuri
These unusual bonsai contain a small, thick trunk and several long branches bent into curving patterns to resemble octopus tentacles imaginatively.
Wind-swept | Fukinagashi
This design describes a tree that looks to be impacted by powerful winds that seem to be blowing consistently in one direction, as may shape a tree on an exposed shoreline or atop a mountain ridge.
The windswept feature can describe several basic styles, including semi-cascade, casual upright, and slanting. The windswept technique can also be used to create multi-tree bonsai.
The 6 Basic Styles and the Trees Used
| PLant | USDA Hardiness Zones | Light Requirement | Soil Requirement | Basic Style |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese Hackberry (Celtis sinensis) | 7a – 9b | Full sun to partial shade | Good drainage, moist, occasionally dry, occasionally wet | Chokkan Formal Upright |
| Sargent’s Chinese Juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii) | 4a – 9b | Full sun | Robust Green Juniper (Juniperus chinensis ‘Robusta Green) | Moyogi Informal Upright |
| Korean Lilac (Syringa oblata) | 4a – 7b | Full sun or partial shade | Good drainage, moist | Shakan Slanting |
| Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’) | 6b – 8a | Full sun | Good drainage, moist | Kengai Full Cascade |
| Robust Green Juniper (Juniperus chinensis ‘Robusta Green’) | 4a – 9b | Full sun | Good drainage | Han-Kengai Semi-Cascade |
| Black Pine (Pinus rigida) | 4a – 7b | Full sun or partial shade | Good drainage, moist, occasionally dry | Sokan Double Trunk |
Conclusion on Bonsai Styling
It is helpful to pay attention to the tree’s natural inclination and to cooperate. Together you’ll produce a stunning design. Preconceived notions need to be set aside, working with what you have.
Every tree is different and uniquely beautiful, and it’s up to you to emphasize its natural traits and unique character. I wish you every success in exploring your hand at creating an amazing bonsai.
