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Bonsai Forests of Mirai



No other bonsai style more accurately conveys the relationship between environmental impact and the form of a tree than the forest. In this video, we dive deep into the traditional form of forest formation and explore how we can use a bonsai form to represent the environment in all its elements. Join us on Ryan’s journey across North America in his growth as a bonsai artist—represented through his explorations of forests.

42 Comments

  3. Tonys Bonsai

    Surely the best bonsai video I have had the pleasure to watch. Being a landscape photographer from the UK, I am very familiar with beech forests, and your composition is ridiculously accurate. It takes me instantly to local forests I know very well that I grew up exploring, and I hope that one day I will have the pleasure to see it in the flesh.
    All of the groups were amazing, but the Monterey cypress planting takes me to a place and an environment that I have never had the pleasure to visit, however just seeing it transports me there. Majestic!
    Although because of their scale, your group plantings are beyond most people, the ideas that they display and the questions they pose, are surely changing the way we as a community view the whole concept of bonsai, and even though I am relatively inexperienced you have inspired me to have a go at creating my own small scale British Hawthorn forest full of tightly knitted twisting trees.
    Thank you, and I hope you and the whole Mirai team can keep up the good work.

  6. Ron Cascisa

    Ryan, You and your teams' cutting edge creativity and professionalism has been a God send to the bonsai community, BSOP and the Pacific NW of the U.S. Thank you!

  10. That Guy

    Ryan, I appreciate your talents and passion. But man I wish we could just get like 25% less words and 25% more just watching you work. Or use those 25% to say why you chose the trees and how you got them that way. Or just stop saying the same thing 2-4 different ways in every sentence. We get your passion and your commitment and your devotion and love and affection for bonsai. See what I mean? The bald cypress is so dope

  14. nihir

    The beech forest is quite unbalanced. The large tree on the right is too big and curves to the inside, opposite what you would see in nature.

    Also the two tree groups on both sides seem equal size. For a better composition it woud help that the sides had more pronounced size difference.

    The front view is most important. You have to remember that when working with forest plantings. The crossing trunks and trees planted in front of each other really take away from the forest as a whole.

  17. Paulo Teixeira

    Wonderful wonderful wonderful work. Amazing forest. Thanks once more, for charing your experience… 🙏👏👏👏🇵🇹

  18. Ryan Herring🐡

    Thanks Ryan, you are definitely very articulate and your journey with applying traditional and unique bonsai practices to create these natural compositions is just top notch. I love how you also show the time these pieces of art take, not touching the redwoods for 6 years for example, the amount of study you put into each species is tremendous, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

  19. Andrew Pearson Stone Monkey Ceramics

    Simply sublime Ryan, what a thoughtful and inspiring insight to this bonsai form and how nature in your country has compelled you on your quest to replicate these natural forests in the bonsai form 👏👏👏👏👏

  21. Rod Schroeder

    Great video!! I am new to bonsai, just an infant. I have been looking at all the Japanese trees, looking at all the American trees our culture the way our trees grow, our land scapes brake all the traditional rules. I’ve only been at this a year, I’ve been confused on how to take our country and represent it in the bonsai world. I think you have embodied what American cultural bonsai has to go to, don’t lose the Japanese styles, but improve the image to become truly American bonsai, our land scapes are similar but definitely different,and with our native trees we must expand our view and concept of bonsai. Thank you I thought I was just not understanding bonsai. But now know how to move forward. Thank you.

  24. kurt kaiser

    Great video! Love the redwood part! I’m in zone9b in Northern California, can get very hot here, I’ve grown coastal redwoods here and have noticed they absolutely need greenery around them to flourish, must be some kind of evapotranspiration environment that they flourish in, just like they’re native environment. Some people plant them in dry areas and they grow very slowly and have a lot of browning on them, I plant them around moist areas and the growth is unbelievable! One of my trees planted 10 years ago is now 60’ tall! Full sun till 1-2pm then some after shade, they’ll take 100° summer temps as long as they have moisture. I like the way you’ve styled(wired) them, it’s pretty much up, up, up. Many times the tops will snap off due to wind and guess what? Yup, a limb will become the new apex and continue upward growth. I’m working on a forest now, just chopped trunks on container grown and will ground grow others to create a forest. Keep us updated on these projects Ryan, love the wealth of knowledge you bring to us!!😃👍🏻

  25. shivangni sharma

    You remind me of a person who has spent years practising classical music / dance & now effortlessly break the boundaries to create new melodies & drama which only a person with depth of knowledge can

  28. Trees in Pots

    This was such a beautifully done and inspiring video. I love the way you look at the world around us and hope that my trees can become even a fraction as beautiful as yours. Thank you for sharing this.

  31. Halfpipe Freak

    Japan and all of Asia is extremely overrated, these old Bonsai people think they know it all and get this godlike status. Get off the pedestal and ground yourself like the roots of a tree cause we are all nothing more than ourselves. We are trees. We need water light and earth to live. Just like the trees themselves. You can think you can always learn more skills and bonsai tricks and keep on bettering yourself but just remember that nature is the ultimate artist and you shall never in your wildest dreams come even close to what nature is capable of making. Under the right circumstances nature can create it's own bonsai trees and anything thinkable but people need to learn to give nature TIME and leave her the hell ALONE. Stop constantly fiddling with nature and just let her grow and see what happens. Anyways, i just hate human arrogance.

  33. Kemal Dervish

    This body of work is just spectacular. Please publish these projects in book form, as this should be studied through the ages!

  35. Tuc Lance

    one of the best videos ive ever seen. im to afraid of losing a tree ive been working on for decades to start the bonsai path

  36. hHelder Baptista

    spectacular video.
    thank you very much for the explanation about the representation of forests in Bonsai in a more naturalistic version.
    cheers

  37. Lori Graham

    So helpful on many levels. I'm just starting to kick around the idea of doing a forest. My inspiration is an amazing aspen forest I saw while bombing around eastern Idaho last spring. The trees were just bursting into an airy lime green. Just can't get that vision out of my head.

  42. paul kinnear

    Great video, i love the group plantings, have a few myself. Interesting what you qhere saying about the judge, here in the UK we seem to be going away from the classic looks. I also have an 8 tree redwood. Many thanks

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