Exploring Bonsai Art: A Visit to the Impressive Bonsai Museum Düsseldorf

This is a “literate form” bonsai. Characterized by a relatively long, thin trunk, trees of this style have an impressive appearance with just a few branches. (Image: Ulla Nolden)

Almost like in Japan

Just outside Düsseldorf city center is an impressive bonsai museum where you can get to know different trees and styles.

The tram runs along vegetable fields towards the Rhine and finally stops at Dorfstrasse. Should there be a bonsai museum here? It’s only 10 minutes to Düsseldorf city center, but there’s no sense of its cosmopolitan ambience here in the Hamm district. At the other end of the sleepy village you spot a sign, down an inconspicuous, winding path, and suddenly you find yourself in Japan.

The location is an impressive demonstration of Wabi-Sabi, the restrained Japanese aesthetic of transience, making it the perfect setting for the presentation of bonsai. Simple, wooden partition walls delimit winding exhibition areas. The complex is surrounded by tall wild hedges full of birdsong. Trees filter sunlight.

The Bonsai Museum Düsseldorf is an impressive demonstration of Wabi-Sabi, the reserved Japanese aesthetic of transience. (Image: Ulla Nolden)

The bonsais stand on tables and pedestals along the walls of these museum rooms, which are only hinted at. These are made of untreated wood that has been bleached to an elegant gray over the years due to the effects of the weather, as well as Corten steel with its distinctive ocher-colored rust layer. The green of the leaves and the different shapes of the small trees are skilfully showcased.

There are countless bonsais to admire here. On information boards you learn that the art of bonsai dates back to 200 BC. It originated in China in the 13th century and came to Japan in the 13th century, where different standard forms later developed. They are impressively displayed here. A tree shows the “cascade”, a style in which the growth of the trunk is directed downwards. This form is derived from trees that have given way to rockfall or snow loads on steep slopes.

This bonsai shows the “cascade”, a style in which the growth of the trunk is directed downwards. This form is derived from trees that have given way to rockfall or snow loads on steep slopes. (Image: Ulla Nolden)

Aged gracefully

On old trees, roots can be seen all around where the trunk protrudes from the ground. If these are missing, the tree is more likely to be associated with a young sapling. However, if you cut the cambium, the layer of tissue that is responsible for the thickness growth, at the bottom of the trunk, you force the plant to quickly form a large number of new roots, and the tree looks older than it actually is.

In old trees, roots can be seen all around where the trunk protrudes from the ground. If these are missing, the tree is more likely to be associated with a young sapling. (Image: Ulla Nolden)

Age also shows itself in the traces of life’s strokes of fate. Here too, the art of bonsai helps or emphasizes naturally occurring flaws. Dead branches or trunk parts are highlighted by polishing or oiling. The most important design tools in the art of bonsai are certainly cutting and bending. Falko shows how you can change the shape of strong branches without breaking them. The branch is protected using a precisely fitting piece of hose and then tensioned with a wire.

Age shows itself in the traces of life’s strokes of fate. The art of bonsai emphasizes such flaws by highlighting dead branches or, as here, parts of the trunk by polishing or oiling them. (Image: Ulla Nolden)

The art of bonsai is an expression of man’s relationship with nature. However, it’s less about demonstrating control and more about respect and admiration. A bonsai allows you to look at a tree in detail and up close, even in an urban context. On an information board here in the museum it says: “By working with the plant on a daily basis, you develop a feeling for what needs it has and what abilities it has. Over the decades, it becomes a companion in whose form the ups and downs of one’s own life manifest themselves.”

One of the most important design tools in the art of bonsai is the gentle bending of the branches using special wires. (Image: Ulla Nolden)

There are certainly bonsai museums elsewhere, perhaps even more elaborate ones. But when you stand back on the village street later, you have the feeling that you have experienced the essence of Far Eastern bonsai art in a completely unexpected place.

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2023-10-16 03:31:38
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