Do You Recognize All These Basic Styles of Bonsai Trees?

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There are many different types of Bonsai tree styles or bonsai designs that can be found to grace an area in any home or outdoor garden. Bonsai tree styles are all unique and each one contains an artistic intention that creates the Bonsai design, giving it a personal touch or feeling. Through years of practicing the techniques and experimenting to come up with new styles of Bonsai trees, a few different styles have been created. Today, there are several well-known styles of Bonsai trees that different Bonsai artists will adopt.

This is a brief informal guide of the 100’s of recognized bonsai styles and their Japanese names. Print this page out and use it as a reference when shopping for your own bonsai tree.

1. 

   Formal Upright Chokkan

   Formal Upright / Chokkan
   The Formal Upright / Chokkan Bonsai is the first of seven of the most well-known Bonsai tree styles that follows the perfect ideal of an upright tree where the trunk is straight and gently tapered to the top, and the branches and leaves tend to be well balanced over the trunk.
2. Informal Upright / Moyogi
   The Informal Upright / Moyogi is similar to the first Bonsai tree style, but differs by having a slight curve in the trunk. Even with the slight curve in the trunk, this particular Bonsai design still requires that there be a balance with the trunk and branches of the tree.
3. Slanting or leaning / Shakkan
   The Slanting or Leaning / Shakkan is a Bonsai tree style where the tree will sit at a slant, or where the trunk will lean to one side.
4. Cascade / Kengai
   The Cascade / Kengai Bonsai tree style is where the tree appears to be over water or on the side of a mountain. A perfect Cascade / Kengai Bonsai will have a trunk that turns downward, falling below the pot that it is in. The branches and foliage will then flow with the downward angle of the trunk. In an imperfect or semi-Cascade, the tree will only reach just below the edge of the pot.
5. Raft / Ikadabuki
   The Raft / Ikadabukit tree is one that will be formed to appear as a tree would that had fallen in the forest without breaking at the trunk. When done right, this style of Bonsai will often appear as if there is more than one tree, but it is really a tree that has branches growing from its side.
6. Windswept / Fukinagashi
   The Windswept / Fukinagashi tree will be styled in such a way that it will appear it has been bent in the direction of the prevailing winds, such as would happen with trees near the ocean or on the prairie.
7. Literati / Bunjin
   The Literati / Bunjin style has a trunk that is mostly bare and contorted in an artistic way. The number of branches the tree has is minimal and are found higher up on the trunk of the tree. This Bonsai design is based on the suggestion or idea that the tree is found in a harsh climate where it has to struggle to survive.