Nanban bonsai pots (南蛮/南蠻盆器)

I was always curious about bonsai pots the Japanese call Nanban. My recent residency at Fujikawa Kouka-en in Osaka fuelled my curiosity about them even further. After my return to Sydney, I wanted all the Nanban information I could get. My first impulse was to search the Net, which brought only disappointment. Then I remembered that John Naka had something about it in his “Bonsai Techniques II”. Sure enough the book has a couple of short paragraphs about Nanban containers, but it wasn't enough to quench my thirst for knowledge.

Usually my access to Japanese sources is non-existent, but this time I was lucky to find one. At Kouka-en nursery, I came across of the following book: Nippon Bonsai Association (1990) Masterpieces of bonsai pot art - Grand edition, Volumes I & II, Nippon Bonsai Association publication, Japan (美術盆器名品大成 , 日本盆栽協同組合編). These are two absolutely magnificent volumes. Unfortunately, the book is out of print, prohibitively expensive and in Japanese, which makes it somewhat inaccessible to the bonsai community outside Japan. Volume II has a section titled “Nanban”. Below is my interpretative translation of this section to English.

“The term Nanban referring to a particular kind of imported pottery is vague and difficult to classify. Due to Japan’s national isolation during the Tokugawa era, the precise meaning of the word Nanban, implying a foreign country in the South, is obscure. Some believe that it is a name for Taiwan, others think that it is a name of some other place in South-East Asia. In short, the majority considers China, Korea, India and surrounds to be the most likely places of Nanban’s origin.” This is a passage from an article by Zesora Kobayashi published in 1935 September issue of “Bonsai” magazine. The author was an eminent figure in the bonsai community, who brought Nanban pots into focus in this excellent article, which later became a great point of reference.

Nanban doesn’t refer to a particular country or production area. It was a collective term for certain artefacts used by tea masters in the world of art and antiques. Before the Meiji era, miscellaneous utensils of daily use have been brought over from the Southern seas for the tea masters of olden days. At first, these containers have been used as vessels for flower arrangement. Being highly prized, there was no way to satisfy the demand for them. Therefore at the request of tea masters, potters such as Ninami Dohachi, Hozen Eiraku, Mokubei Aoki and Miura Chikusen began making Nanban imitations. A wide range of Japanese-made Nanban imitations included pottery from Bizen and Ryukyuan Islands as well as Naeshirogawa ware of Satsuma and Shyodaiyaki ware of Higo. All of them are collectively referred to as Nanban.

The earliest Nanban containers entered bonsai scene before the Meiji period and were typically small round trough-shaped pots, dishes and jar lids, which were modified into a bonsai pot by drilling holes in their bottom. These were produced in Taiwan, Ryukyuan Islands, Luzon and according to Zesora Kobayashi in Southern China.

There are only few tribes among Taiwan aboriginals which knew pottery. One of them is the Yami tribe of the Orchid Island situated several dozen nautical miles off the southern coast of Taiwan. It is also said that the Ami tribe from the east coast plains of Taiwan, made yellowish colour ware referred to as "hannera". Very primitive brown Nanban pots are assumed to be from there. Apart from those, there were also seed storage jars brought from Taiwan. It is believed that they have been made in Xiamen, China and then brought to Japan via Taiwan.

During the thirty odd years between the 9th year of Keichō era (1613) and the 12th year of Kan'ei era (1636), Tokugawa Ieyasu issued official permits, allowing merchants to trade with Korea, Ming Empire, Luzon, Annam, Cambodia and other places. Sea voyages exploring coastal areas extended from Taiwan to Macau, Sumatra and Thailand. Some of the Nanban containers were brought to Japan during this period.

The age of Nanban pots is generally not essential. They are primarily admired and valued for their rustic grace and charm. At some point in the past, a bonsai aesthete realised that these qualities would complement bonsai. Unfortunately, the name of the person who introduced Nanban containers to bonsai is unknown. Soon after that however, Nanban containers became quite popular, while they were rather rare. Yonekichi Kibe of former Taikō-en bonsai nursery has been the lead driver of the Nanban popularity till the late Meiji period. In response to this popularity, Chinese merchants set up a production of containers imitating Nanban shape and appearance. They were mostly produced in Xiamen, Fujian from where they were shipped to Japan via Shanghai. This supply of Nanban containers to Japan continued throughout the pre-war period until 1941.

As explained above, it is not possible to ascertain the precise place of origin of Nanban ware due to their wide geographic spread. The only exception from Nanban category is the Yixing ware, despite of the fact that concave lids for large storage jars were produced there. They are excluded from the Nanban class because of the differences in texture and colour of the clay.

Nanban containers look primitive and amateurish, however making them requires sound craftsmanship. Its simplicity and spontaneity makes them a particularly natural choice for some bonsai, however one needs to overcome certain mental resistance to fully embrace Nanban as such a choice.

This passage is all I know about Nanban pots so far. Below are the illustrations which accompany the passage in the book. They should help you with a mental picture of Nanban containers. 

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Origins of Nanban pottery: Hội An, Vietnam

I was aware of Namban pottery for a long time, but since my trip to Japan in 2015 this interest became deeper. This fascination arose from the fact that Namban’s origins are shrouded in mystery and I am a person who likes to get to the bottom of things. The best explanation of Namban origins I found so far is here http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/namban-bonsai-pots.html.

South-East Asia has always been a suspect provenance of Namban pottery and last year, I made a Namban discovery of my own, while traveling in Vietnam. During a visit to the Museum of Folk Culture in Hội An, I came across of a ceramic piece that simply “screamed” Namban at me (see image below left). For comparison, the image below right is a contemporary piece of similar shape and size made by a renowned Japanese potter Yukizyou Nakano also known as “Gyozan”.

I learned at the museum that the pot has been made in the Thanh Hà village near Hội An. Potters of Thanh Hà village have been making functional low-fired unglazed pottery since the beginning of the 17th century. Nguyen Dynasty records of the time tell us that their wares have been transported by river to the nearby commercial port of Hoi An and from there exported to the coastal provinces of Central Vietnam and abroad. All this got me thinking and I realised that six historical occurrences took place at the same time, all of them at the beginning of the 17th century. Here they are:

1. Potters settle in Thanh Hà village near Hội An in Vietnam.

2. Hội An becomes the most important trade port in the East Vietnam Sea.

3. Tokugawa Ieyasu issues permits to Japanese merchants to trade with Vietnam.

4. A thriving Japanese trading settlement springs up in Hội An.

5. Increasing demand for rustic and unassuming ceramics for tea ceremony in Japan.

6. Earliest Namban pottery appears in Japan.

When the facts line up like that, Vietnamese provenance of some of the early Namban ceramics becomes quite plausible. I could also add here that the oldest extant Vietnamese ceramics have been found in Japan, in a tomb at Dazaifu and they date back to 1330. Vietnamese ceramics made in the 15th and 16th centuries also have been found in Okinawa, Nagasaki, Hakata, Osaka, Sakai and Hiroshima.

One architectural remainder of the former Japanese presence in Hội An is the Japanese Bridge. At the beginning of the 17th century Japanese merchants in Hội An were influential enough to build this bridge across the river to trade with the local residents (see the images below).

As a more general afterthought, I would like to finish this post with a photo of a lidded jar I saw in Vietnam and I hope you see the connection with the topic of this post. Lids of such jars were converted into bonsai containers known today as Namban.

On the Origin of Bonsai Appeal to Man

I wrote this article in the early 2013 and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to publish it in bonsai magazines it found its home in my blog and now on my website too.

Have you ever wondered why people enjoy looking at bonsai? The joy we derive from viewing bonsai is the very essence of its existence. However, the reasons why certain features make bonsai appealing to us are inexplicit. For instance, just saying that a tree is balanced doesn’t explain why balance is a desirable quality. These thoughts led me to seek a better understanding of our perception of bonsai.

The answers came from my training as a biologist. As a matter of fact, I came up with four theories outlining the reasons for the visual appeal of bonsai. But first, I need to make a little disclaimer. Strictly speaking, my theories here are speculations. As a scientist, I view them as hypotheses, which ought to be tested. Some of my statements, though, may be supported by existing scientific literature, but the review of this literature is beyond the scope of this essay. Its aim is only to convey my ideas.

Theory One: Arboreal refuge

Humans can quickly and accurately assess individual trees and favourably assessed trees are perceived by us as beautiful. Such assessments take us seconds, we do them subconsciously. It is simply our instinct. Modern humans don’t need to assess trees for their beauty, but we have this ability anyway. Why? I believe this ability is a leftover from our evolutionary past. 

From around 85 million year ago till about 4 million years ago our distant ancestors lived on trees. During this long evolutionary period our ancestors’ ability to assess trees for their suitability as a refuge was ‘hardwired’ in their brains and became an instinct. Although, in the last 4 million years, our ancestors gradually discontinued their arboreal way of life and lost the need for this instinct, its remnants are still present in the workings of our mind. This leads to the question of what makes a tree beautiful? Well, I think the qualities which make us perceive trees as ‘beautiful’ are structural stability and complexity.

To illustrate my point about structural stability I made a diagram shown below and asked ten random work colleagues: “Which tree has the most pleasing shape?” Nine out of ten chose option ‘b’, which happens to be the most structurally stable tree of the lot. It would also make the best bonsai in my opinion.

While shapes ‘a’, ‘c’ and ‘d’ are less stable than ‘b’, shape ‘e’ is quite stable, yet test participants didn’t find it pleasing, and I know why. Shape ‘e’ is a shrub. Shrubs don’t get you out of a predator’s reach. At the same time, they provide predators with a hiding place to ambush you. In the past, our ancestors survived by being wary of shrubs and today we still prefer the looks of a tree to that of a shrub.  

To clarify what I meant earlier by the complexity of a tree, I made another diagram, where the number of branches on a tree represents its complexity. The diagram is shown below. I asked the same ten colleagues the same question: “Which tree has the most pleasing shape?” Seven out of ten chose option ‘c’ and two people chose option ‘a’. The majority of people preferred trees with a more complex branch structure. If these trees were bonsai you would be foolish to choose anything but ‘c’.

Suddenly, all those rules for styling bonsai begin to take a new meaning. Features of bonsai such as buttress roots, thick trunk, trunk taper, golden ratio proportions, apex above the trunk base and balanced branching are characteristics of a stable structure. On the other hand, features such as dead branches, exposed wood, hollowed trunk, ruggedly textured bark, fruit, flowers, unusually coloured foliage and fine branching are characteristics which adorn bonsai with layers of complexity. When the trunk line of a bonsai is visible, we see all those characteristics clearly and it is easier for us to appreciate a bonsai. We strive to make our bonsai ‘beautiful’ and without realising it, create representations of arboreal refuges favored by our prehistoric ancestors. We like bonsai because they look like our primeval home.

Theory Two: Miracle of survival

The arguments I made so far explain the appeal of structurally stable trees or what we classify in bonsai as upright styles, but what about other tree shapes? Here, I would like to explain the appeal of bonsai that portray trees struggling against the elements of nature. This category includes such bonsai styles as literati, cascade, wind-blown, struck-by-lightning, drift-wood, root-over-rock, raft and sometimes other styles.  

A bizarre or improbable survival of a living thing often attracts our attention. We feel sympathy and compassion at witnessing survival against all odds. This is the emotion that compels us to protect nature. We marvel at an antelope’s escape from the lion’s claws and we wonder at a stunted tree clinging to a cliff face. Knowing the source of this emotion could explain the attraction held by bonsai implying such miraculous survival.

According to a widely acclaimed book titled “The Selfish Gene”, written by an evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the cause of such compassion towards other living things is our genetic relatedness to them. The more genes we share with another living organism the more compassionate we feel towards it. Genetically, we are most closely related to our parents, siblings and offspring and they are usually the ones we care about the most. We would care more about a pet dog than a pet fish, because we share more genes with a dog. I hear you asking: Are we really related to plants? The answer is yes. We share many genes with plants and all other living species on our planet, including bacteria. As we are only distantly related to plants our sympathy towards them is not very strong. Humans kill plants often enough, however we also protect rare species and grow plants for no practical use. Bonsai is one example of that.

Bonsai styles such as literati, cascade and a few others often represent somewhat extreme cases of survival, which evoke compassion more effectively. I should also note that my ‘miracle of survival’ and ‘arboreal refuge’ theories often work together. For example, a cascade bonsai with a thick trunk and balanced branches would create a stronger appeal. I hope you are beginning to see that the psychology of our perception of bonsai is quite complex and my next theory is going to add yet another layer of complexity.

Theory Three: Field of dreams

Here, I would like to explain the appeal of bonsai forests, rock plantings, saikei, bonkei, some suiseki and even certain types of Oriental gardens. All these art forms have one common denominator - they represent landscapes. Here we need to think beyond individual trees and ask ourselves a couple of questions. First: “Why do we enjoy looking at landscapes in general?” and second: “What landscape features hold stronger appeal to us and why?” 

To answer these questions I used the power of Google to do a little survey. I entered search criterion ‘beautiful landscape’ in Google Images and examined the top one hundred results. The landscape images were very diverse and depicted deserts, sea, mountains, forests, cities and more. First, I tried to find something that was present in each and every one of those one hundred landscapes. It became immediately obvious that it wasn’t any particular physical feature of the landscape. The only common attribute they all shared was the abundance of open space. In 94% of the landscapes the viewer could see further than one kilometer and 91% of them featured a distant horizon.

This indicates that open space is highly pleasing to human eye. The ability to see danger from afar was essential to our survival, so was the ability to see the choices for food and shelter. On the subconscious level, we feel safer when our line of sight is uninterrupted, but our conscious mind tells us that we see beautiful surroundings. One example that supports this theory is a seascape. The sea is not our habitat, but we love looking at it, just because our line of sight is uninterrupted. Another example is looking at a cityscape from a tall building. The landscape we see is completely artificial, yet it is pleasing to us because our line of sight is uninterrupted again.

The answer to my first question about landscapes is quite simple. We enjoy looking at vast expanses of open space, because we can see what’s out there, and it makes us feel safe. We like bonsai representing landscapes because they imply distance and open space. Such bonsai evoke subconscious emotions of safety, which are rationalised by our conscious mind as beauty.

Now, let’s examine specific landscape features to assess their appeal to us. We must keep in mind that a large stretch of open space is the most desirable landscape trait and no other feature can beat that 100 out of 100 score. I used the same one hundred images to score other landscape attributes. I counted how many images out of hundred contained a particular attribute. These counts are also percentages and they are shown in the table below.

The list of attributes that scored over fifty percent was surprisingly small. The percentages also prioritised the importance of these landscape attribute. The diagram below is a generalized representation of an average landscape containing trees, grassland, water, mountains and lots of open space. Many images in that top one hundred looked similar to this.

Trees and grassland were the most desirable landscape attributes. They are also the only two components you need to create your basic bonsai forest. In fact, even single tree bonsai often suggest a lone tree on a hill or in a meadow. In a formal bonsai display such a suggestion is aided by the use of grasses as accent plants. From the scientific point of view, the importance of trees and grassland makes perfect sense. Humans, as a species, evolved in ecosystems which were a mixture of forest and grassland. When we see a combination of forest and grassland our instincts tell us that we are in the right place. These two habitats can provide us with a variety of food and shelter we need for survival. 

The third most important landscape attribute was water and its importance is self-understood. However, the importance of mountains needs an explanation. I have talked at length about the uninterrupted line of sight. Well, very often you have to be on top of a mountain to have it. Hills and mountains provided early humans with vantage points necessary for hunting, gathering and security.

Mountains are also a source of a different kind of appeal. What do you think was the best shelter a prehistoric human could wish for? It was a cave, and caves are found in mountains. Think of our modern brick houses. They are nothing but artificial caves. Humans stopped using caves in prehistory because they learned how to custom-make them from a variety of materials. In fact, this was one of the key inventions which allowed humans to multiply and spread to less favourable environments.  

I hope you are beginning to understand why bonsai suggesting open space, trees, grass, water and rock are so appealing to us. They tap into our instincts and our mind embraces these elements as something attractive. In reality though, we enjoy looking at such bonsai because they portray places promising survival.

Theory Four: Tree in disguise

After providing a few different explanations for the visual appeal of bonsai, I could still see one more. It concerns the category of bonsai whose shape suggests something other than a tree. This category includes trees like the ‘welcome pine’ reminding us of a person with an open arm. It also includes trees which look like dragons, Chinese language characters and sometimes other objects. 

Appreciation of such bonsai requires not instinct, but conscious and abstract thought. In the case of the ‘welcome pine’ we have to create an abstract idea of a particular shape through observing and analysing shapes of real life objects such as a person with an open arm, a specific famous tree in China and a bonsai tree resembling both. We like looking at the ‘welcome pine’ bonsai because making connections between these seemingly unrelated objects is enjoyable to us. To understand why we enjoy it, think of a prehistoric human capable of recognising a predator camouflaged as foliage or a prey camouflaged as a rock. Making such connections could be a matter of life and death to our distant ancestors. In our evolutionary past natural selection favoured individuals with better abilities for abstract thinking and our brain evolved to reward it with positive emotions. Such evolutionary adaptation allowed our species to discover and innovate, which in turn immensely increased our chances of survival.

Today, we enjoy solving puzzles even when there are no immediate rewards associated with them. Problem solving triggers positive emotions in our brain and recognising that a bonsai tree looks like something else makes us feel happy.

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I have tried my best to explain why people enjoy looking at bonsai, but how can my theories help an average bonsai practitioner? I believe that bonsai traits identified in my theories can be used as a series of guidelines for creating, displaying and judging bonsai. Whenever you look at a bonsai and feel that something is missing - check it against the following criteria:

• Does it convey a sense of stability?

• Does it combine multiple points of interest to depict sufficient complexity?
• Does it portray a struggle against nature?
• Does it suggest an open landscape, perhaps with water or rocks?
• Does its shape allude to anything other than a tree?

These criteria are very well known to the bonsai community, but now you have possible explanations for how they interact with your mind and why it is important to incorporate them into your bonsai design.