The art and craft, the invention of bonsai tools and supplies, and whole inspiration started in China, and is known in Chinese as "Penjing." Around the eleventh century, traders, writers, visitors, adults and kids started the hype about these special trees and went out to buy tools, and pots, and all the wire, soil, and supplies for bonsai needed. And it was around this time that Penjing drifted to the attention of the Japanese. In Japan they brought their own styling techniques, and soon identified the art in their native language we today all know as "bonsai."
At the end of the nineteenth century it was the Japanese that introduced the traditional art to the Europeans. And, the rest is history, because soon after the art form made head into all cultures including the United States. In fact, it became so popular in the U.S.A., that it even got its own part as a supporting actor in the movie Karate Kid, a 1980's film about a student of karate and culture of the Orient. In this movie we even see some of the first bonsai tools make television in the United States.
Penjing Iron Works, gets its name from the ancient art that the Chinese introduced to the world, "penjing." Allow us to take you through different milestones throughout the history from China to the world.
