Words of an Italian Bonsai Professional
Giovanni Genotti is a professional bonsai designer who belongs to Colleggio Nazionale Istruttori Bonsai e Suisek. Here is the his opinion and observation about bonsai.
>what was the trigger that brought you into bonsai world?
>>when I was 17 years old, I saw a calendar came from Japan. There were some pictures of bonsai on it and they were quite impressive. Also, in a hospital, I saw a very tiny plat. And I was totally attracted by it. But I did not expect this came from Japan, I thought this was Chinese stuff. Originally, since I was a kid, I would love plats and that was the only my interest. I remember that I used to hung around forest to see plats.
>how did you develop your skills and knowledge?
>>At the beginning, I had a really hard time. First of all, I did not know even the word bonsai. So I made many mistakes and mistakes again. The problem was nobody and nothing was familiar with it and helpful. But then I met a guy from Trino who had documents from Britain about bonsai. So basically we started to work together to develop our own skills and knowledge. Gradually our bonsai had started to look like real Japanese ones. My efforts reached to go to school and seminars. I have learned from a Japanese professional Mr. Kimura. What we learned from real professional from Japan was so important.
>how do you observe current bonsai world in Italy?
>>There are generally both negative and positive things that I have to say. Positive thing is that bonsai is now widespread and people have developed lots of activities about bonsai, while many years ago, bonsai was regarded as something eccentric and a thing for not everyone.
The negative thing is that it is very expensive to buy bonsai made in Japan. So most of them sold in Italy are from China. If we had enough knowledge and avoided commercialism about bonsai, this might have not happened. Also, currently, many people are trying to go more artistic with bonsai in order to express themselves. I believe that bonsai should be a very natural thing with the idea that we understand bonsai itself's beauty.
>if you know any, please tell about current bonsai in Japan and your opinion toward it.
>>For us, if we say "bonsai," it means bonsai made in Japan. In this sense, I have doubt somehow. Like I said the price is too high. When I went to Japan and I noticed that at the point of a production company which sells complete bonsai, it is already expensive. But how can I understand that they produce 200 thousands of bonsai as a "bonsai." These incomplete bonsai plants are also regarded as bonsai "made in Japan," when they are exported to Italy.
