Is bonsai “cruel” to plants?

Is bonsai “cruel” to plants? I can’t say I’m asked this often, but I have been asked it. Some time ago someone asked it here too. Twisting with wire, cutting roots and branches, a tiny pot — surely that is torturing the plant. “Would you like it if someone cut off your arms and legs?”, “You’re not a comprachico, are you?” — I’ve heard questions like that too. I don’t know how fitting or fair it is to equate a plant with a human being (or any other animal).

Pruning and wiring are not used only for bonsai. Anyone who has had anything to do with gardening or winegrowing will know that every fruit-bearing crop is pruned every year; repotting and root pruning are commonplace too. A farmer who tends a vineyard and makes wine uses these methods to increase the yield, while in bonsai culture they are used to create form — in other words, only the aim and the scale are different.

Even if orchards and vineyards are unfamiliar to a city dweller, they will at least have seen how in Tbilisi, in early spring, all the branches of the plane trees are cut back to get new, denser growth. This is called rejuvenating the canopy. European gardens can serve as an example too. Their trees and shrubs have regular geometric shapes, symmetry and a certain orderliness of form. I hardly think anyone believes these plants take on such shapes by themselves, without pruning.

“Isn’t it cruel?” — I don’t know why people never ask themselves this when they are eating a carrot or parsley. Perhaps the earth hurts too when it is plowed or paved with asphalt, who knows. If we are going to talk about “cruelty”, I hardly think a pig willingly impales itself on a skewer for mtsvadi, or a turkey happily leaps into satsivi, or a lamb enjoys bathing in chakapuli, yet I have never come across a single “heart-wrenching” comment on recipes for satsivi or chakapuli. I can imagine what an ordeal it must be for people who consider creating bonsai cruel just to sit in an ordinary café, since in all likelihood they will be seated on a chair made from a “killed” tree, handed a menu made from another killed tree and offered dishes made from countless killed animals. These people are probably hostile toward every café and restaurant as well.

I honestly don’t know how convincing my arguments are, but in the 30 years I have been trying to make bonsai, it has never once occurred to me that a person working on bonsai is committing some special, irreparable cruelty against nature.