Page 26 - Tài liệu Ebook cây cảnh Bonsai and Penjing

highly codified geometric and controlled art form of Japanese bonsai.

Also following the Chinese pattern, Japan became the new source of Asian
inspiration after its opening to expanded foreign trade by Commodore Matthew
C. Perry in 1854. Called japonisme, this infatuation in the West with Japanese
style and design, especially lacquerware, textiles and woodblock prints, emerged
towards the end of the nineteenth century and into the beginning of the
twentieth. It was bolstered by Japan’s own efforts to expand awareness of its
country and wares through participating in world’s fairs and expositions, often
highlighting gardens and plants.
Like China, Japan exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial International
Exposition of 1876. The Japanese presentation included a garden, which featured
a pavilion with a bonsai display. Bonsai were also shown at Japan’s exhibition at
the Chicago World’s Fair in Illinois in 1893, and at the Louisiana Purchase
Exhibition in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904. Japan also had a significant presence
at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California in
1915, with an exhibit area more than twice the size of China’s. Once again,
bonsai were shown, and one tree from the Exposition is known to survive to this

day—the Domoto Trident Maple now at the Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal
Way, Washington.
THE UNITED STATES

At the same time that Japan was creating Japanese gardens for world’s fairs and
expositions, private individuals began to create Japanese-style gardens around
the United States. The Japanese Hill and Water Garden at the Morris Arboretum
near Philadelphia, the Japanese Garden at The Huntington in San Marino,
California, and the Japanese Garden at Maymont in Richmond, Virginia, were
created before World War I as private gardens, which were later opened to the
public. The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was
a public garden from its opening in 1915.
While many people were introduced to Japan through its participation in
international fairs and expositions, others made the long journey to the country
itself and discovered its distinctive culture in person. Among the individuals who
traveled to Japan were the Honorable Larz Anderson and his wife Isabel.
Anderson served as Ambassador to Japan under President William Howard Taft,

returning to the United States in 1913. While in Japan, the Andersons purchased
bonsai at the Yokohama Nursery Co. for their home in Massachusetts, and later
bequeathed them to the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, where some
can be seen today.