In this blogpost about the Kozumikku style, Laurent Darrieux talks about what led him to create an atypical style, and how it’s done.
Laurent Darrieux started Bonsai in 1987 with his father, and this passion would never leave him. Parts of this post come from his books named Cosmic Bonsaï. Let’s find out more about the Kozumikku or Burton style of Bonsai!
The Kozumikku style
We will focus here on what differentiates the Kozumikku style from all of the other Japanese styles of bonsai, such as Moyogi, Netsuranari, Shokan, Chakkan, Ishitsukki, etc. We will also seek to explain the historical reasons which led us to seek an alternative way rather than following the existing styles offered by the Japanese or the Chinese which are culturally related to their history as well as to their respective traditions.
The Kozumikku style is not opposed to tradition, it is a legitimate evolution due to it’s emancipation from existing codes and from a static position of certainty. Kozumikku deliberately departs from the pretence of other styles as it does not set out to recreate a tree growing in a natural state, on the contrary by dominating the plant and overruling it’s natural biological habits, the forms cannot exist in the natural world.
This convoluted method of shaping, allows us to bypass the natural laws governed by apical force and phototropism – those forces which are governed by solar attraction and natural laws. Emphasis is placed upon the inclusion and repetition of fractal forms typical of trees growing on our star and which will be set aside for the time it takes to form the tree and where it will reside thereafter. It’s important to note that with exception to some of the techniques employed in creating this form which allow it to be uniquely obtained, generally the techniques used to achieve this style are classical methods used within typical bonsai development. What distinguishes the Burton Style from others to date, is that it is the only style which neither seeks to replicate nature and does not occur independently within the natural world.
