The pots came later. First, there were the trees.
The trees
Some came home for the curve of a trunk. Others, for the way a branch moved through space. We liked the shapes enough to learn. Working with a bonsai brought a different kind of pleasure. Wiring and pruning guide the form, while growth continues to change it. We enjoy that rhythm of making a small adjustment, waiting and returning to look. What the tree becomes is still partly its own doing.
Deadwood
神 舎利
The deadwood often holds our attention. A bare, dead branch is known as jin (神); exposed deadwood along the trunk is shari (舎利). These features can occur naturally or be created and refined by hand. We particularly enjoy treating the exposed wood with lime sulphur. It whitens the surface, setting the pale wood against living bark and green foliage. The tree carries both at once: what has stopped growing and what continues.
Echizen Bunzan · 越前文山
Looking at the trees this closely eventually brought us to the pots. A different pot can change the way a tree is seen without a single branch being moved. Its colour affects how the foliage appears; its height and width alter the balance of the whole planting.
Choosing the pot becomes another part of shaping the composition. This led us to the work of Kaoru Ito, the Japanese potter known as Echizen Bunzan. Echizen, in Fukui, is one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns, with a pottery tradition that reaches back to the medieval period.
Some of his glazes are vivid, others earthy and restrained. We liked their depth and irregularity beside the green of a bonsai: a pot could have a distinct character and still feel at ease within the planting. Some of his forms rise on high feet, opening a space beneath the bowl.
That space becomes as much a part of the silhouette as the clay around it. The hand-built quality mattered just as much when we made our selection. Small variations in shape and surface leave something of the making visible.
The pot can hold our attention even before there is a tree in it. Looking for the maker's mark, 文山, is another small pleasure. After spending time with the form and colour, it brings the person behind the pot back into view.
Echizen Bunzan Bonsai Pots selected by MYJN Galerie
At the Galerie
A small selection of Echizen Bunzan pots is here at MYJN Galerie, alongside the bonsai that first led us to them.
A tree keeps changing; a pot holds the form its maker gave it. Living with them brings both kinds of time into the same small space.
The pots are available to view and purchase at MYJN Galerie in Petaling Jaya. You are welcome to spend some time with them.
Written on 10 October 2026, by MYJN.
