60 free Bonsai trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This bonsai trivia quiz starts with the basics — what the word means, how bonsai differs from dwarfing, why the Japanese tradition has no indoor bonsai — and works through the named styles (formal upright, cascade, broom, windswept, raft, forest), deadwood techniques like jin and shari, akadama soil, glazed versus unglazed pots and the rules of a formal display. Then it goes to the history and the famous trees: the 1195 scroll that first shows dwarfed pines in Japan, the Noh play about a samurai who burned his trees for a monk, the 500-year-old Sandai Shogun pine in the Imperial Palace, the Yamaki Pine that survived Hiroshima, John Naka's Goshin, Omiya Bonsai Village and the Kokufu-ten exhibition. About a third of the questions are easy warm-ups; the rest will test even growers who know their moyogi from their shakan. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's bonsai, penjing and museum pages and the sources they cite, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the Japanese word 'bonsai' literally mean?
Pot planting
The 'bon' is the shallow tray or pot; the word replaced older terms like hachi-no-ki, 'the bowl's tree'.
Q 02The Japanese art of bonsai grew out of which older Chinese practice?
Penjing
Chinese tree penjing allows wilder shapes and brightly coloured, creatively shaped pots, whereas bonsai favours simpler forms and plain containers.
Q 03What is Korea's equivalent art of miniature potted trees called?
Bunjae
Vietnam's version, hòn non bộ, focuses on miniature landscapes of islands and mountains in contact with water.
Q 04A tree collected from the wild for training as bonsai is known by what Japanese term?
Yamadori
Collected trees are often the most expensive and prized bonsai because they arrive with decades of natural character.
Q 05Which of these is NOT a purpose of bonsai, according to the tradition?
Producing food or medicine
Bonsai are shaped purely to be looked at; a fruiting bonsai is grown for the look of the fruit, not the harvest.
Q 06Bonsai is often confused with dwarfing. What is the actual difference?
Regular trees kept small by technique
Pruning, root reduction, potting, defoliation and grafting do the work; a bonsai seed planted in the ground would grow into a full-size tree.
Q 07Which 1195 scroll is the earliest known to depict dwarfed potted trees in Japan?
Saigyo Monogatari Emaki
The 1309 Kasuga scroll goes further, showing a slatted workbench holding a shallow wooden tray of dwarf trees.
Q 08Around the 14th century, dwarf potted trees in Japan were called 'hachi no ki', which means what?
The bowl's tree
The term implied a fairly deep pot; 'bonsai' later signalled the shallower container that lets the trunk and surface roots show.
Q 09In the Noh play Hachi no Ki, a poor samurai sacrifices his three last dwarf potted trees for what purpose?
To burn as firewood for a travelling monk
The monk is an official in disguise who later rewards him with three estates named for the plum, pine and cherry he burned.
Q 10The Sandai Shogun no Matsu, a five-needle pine in the Japanese imperial collection, is thought to be at least how old?
500 years
It is one of Japan's National Treasures and was reportedly tended by the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu.
Q 11The Sandai Shogun pine in the emperor's collection was cared for by which shogun?
Tokugawa Iemitsu
Its name means 'the third shogun', which is exactly who Iemitsu was in the Tokugawa line.
Q 12The Japanese emperor whose 1868 move to Tokyo saw 'Giant Bonsai' displayed at his palace was which ruler?
Meiji
Government officials who did not appreciate bonsai reportedly fell out of favour, which did wonders for the hobby's popularity among civil servants.
Q 13Which shaping material appeared in bonsai practice around 1910, replacing string, rope and burlap?
Wire
Zinc-galvanised steel came first; expensive copper was reserved for trees with real potential.
Q 21What is the Japanese name of the informal upright style, with visible curves in the trunk?
Moyogi
It is probably the most common style in collections because most trees naturally lend themselves to it.
Q 22The 'broom' bonsai style, hokidachi, with a straight trunk and ball crown, is typically used for which trees?
Elms
The trunk splits into fine branches about a third of the way up, forming a canopy that looks like an upturned broom.
Q 23What is the Japanese name for the windswept style, a tree battered by wind from one side?
Fukinagashi
Think of a tree on a mountain ridge or exposed shoreline with every branch streaming one way.
Q 14Which bonsai tool did Masakuni I design to leave a shallow indentation that heals scarlessly?
The concave cutter
His 1920s and 1930s designs were the first steel tools made specifically for bonsai styling.
Q 15What is Japan's most prestigious bonsai exhibition, held every February in Tokyo since 1934?
Kokufu-ten
It celebrated its 97th edition in 2023 and is by invitation only, running for just eight days.
Q 16The first World Bonsai Convention was held in 1980 in which Japanese city?
Osaka
The World Bonsai Friendship Federation was formed nine years later in Omiya and now stages conventions every four years.
Q 17What was Yuji Yoshimura's 1957 English-language book with Giovanna Halford, a 'bible for westerners', titled?
The Art of Bonsai
Written in English with his student Giovanna Halford, it has run to more than thirty printings.
Q 18Which Japanese fired volcanic clay, meaning 'red ball', is used worldwide for bonsai?
Akadama
Kanuma, a yellow pumice, is the counterpart used for azaleas and other lime-hating plants.
Q 19In the formal upright style, chokkan, what shape does the trunk take?
Straight and tapering
Branches step down regularly from thickest at the bottom to finest at the top.
Q 20In the full cascade style, kengai, where does the apex of the tree end up?
Below the base of the pot
The style mimics trees growing over water or down mountainsides; a semi-cascade stops at or just beneath the pot lip.
Q 24The raft style, ikadabuki, mimics what natural event?
A tree toppled on its side sprouting new trunks
Growers create it by laying a trunk flat in the soil so the upward branches root and become a grove.
Q 25In the forest or group style, yose ue, how many trees are typically planted?
An odd number
Odd numbers avoid the symmetry that bonsai aesthetics discourage; famous forests run to eleven trees and more.
Q 26What is the difference between the sekijoju and ishitsuki styles?
Roots wrap the stone vs roots grow inside it
In root-over-rock the rock is essentially a pedestal; in ishitsuki the rock is the pot.
Q 27In deadwood technique, what does 'jin' refer to?
Bark stripped from a whole branch
Shari is the counterpart on the trunk, simulating scars from a broken limb or lightning strike.
Q 28Which bonsai principle says the scar from a removed branch must be concealed and wire must leave no marks?
No trace of the artist
The viewer should believe they are looking at nature, not at hours of pruning and wiring.
Q 29Bonsai aesthetics discourage which quality in branch and root placement?
Symmetry
Radial or bilateral symmetry looks manufactured; a slightly off-centre composition reads as natural.
Q 30Which Japanese aesthetic concept, beauty in imperfection and transience, informs bonsai design?
Wabi-sabi
Many formal rules of bonsai exist to help a tree express wabi-sabi or the gentle sadness of mono no aware.