Expectations for the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society's 26th Annual Bonsai Show this past weekend may have been nothing more than to revisit a scene from "The Karate Kid."
But many visitors with experience in the art of bonsai said the show took an accurate and instructional look at the craft.
John Lindsay, chair of the event, said he was pleased to have such a large number of trees for display. The society has more than 100 members, some of whom work on several trees, he said.
Founded in 1970, the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society is a forum for members to learn about and practice the ancient art of bonsai.
"The goal is to have something that looks like a real tree that's shrunken," Lindsay said.
Each living work is distinct not only in shape but in the larger pictures it brings to mind, said bonsai artist Jack Wikle.
A favorite tree was a 75-year-old Buttonwood, which was potted eight years ago. Its single trunk twisted around itself and leaned out over its pedestal, with a wide, circular crown of green, oval leaves at the top.
Wikle started his first tree more than 30 years ago. He is a nationally known bonsai artist from Tecumseh, Mich., who, by his own account, has "enough (trees) that I can't give an exact count."
Wikle likens his trees to growing children.
"It's a very subjective thing," Wikle said. "You try to encourage and restrain the tree at the same time. If you're afraid of making mistakes you're more likely to make more mistakes."
Although some bonsai sell for thousands of dollars at upscale international auctions, it's not expensive to get into bonsai, and some trees sell for less than $10, Wikle said.
It doesn't have to be a full-time job either. "It's purely a hobby for most of us," Society President Dean Atkinson said.
The art of bonsai is set apart from conventional arts such as painting and sculpting because the trees are continually tended to and altered by an artist's creativity.
"A tree is never finished," Wikle said. "The horizon is way out beyond us."
Matthew and Jessica Schenk, University graduates in '93 and '92, respectively, said the showing of rows and rows of trees is not exactly how bonsai have historically been seen in Japan or China, but that the exhibit was no less captivating.
"It's simply on a different scale," Matthew Schenk said.