There's a lot here that doesn't add up. The thumbnail is backward: the Chinese on the pottery is flipped. And if this is bonsai, which is Japanese (admittedly, the Chinese have their own version of bonsai, called 盆景/penjing,* as the Koreans do with 분재/bunjae—see some bunjae here), why is the vase covered in Chinese? Am I missing something? (Bonsai pots are also usually simple, not covered in calligraphy.)
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*See examples of Chinese penjing here. Do you see any calligraphy-covered pots?
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Hi Kevin,
ReplyDelete1) The guys YouTube description says this creation was inspired by a trip to Shanghai in 2019. I’m gonna guess he took the easy tourist route, and the tourist friendly labels in Shanghai actually read “bonzai” (so?) tree, to ease sales.
2) I’m not sure about the character “ち”… I know it’s Japanese (hiragana). Is it a Chinese(TM) character as well?
3) The guy here may just say “bonsai”, because the Western audience on YouTube isn’t going to recognize the Chinese name.
My 2 cents.
Andy in Japan
Andy,
ReplyDeleteAt a guess, that kana-like glyph is a Chinese character that just happens to look like a kana. But I don't really know.