This article is within the scope of WikiProject Japan, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Japan-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project, participate in relevant discussions, and see lists of open tasks. Current time in Japan: 14:38, May 17, 2024 (JST, Reiwa 6) (Refresh)JapanWikipedia:WikiProject JapanTemplate:WikiProject JapanJapan-related articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Visual arts, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of visual arts on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Visual artsWikipedia:WikiProject Visual artsTemplate:WikiProject Visual artsvisual arts articles
I am confused, because the image is the same as the one in the bonkei article, where it explicitly says it is of bonkei. So what is the difference? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 15:53, 10 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The Creative Commons world has a real dearth of images for both bonkei and bonseki, and it appears that of those few, some are mislabeled at the source. I am using one book published in English as reference for the Japanese terminology[1]. If its author was mistaken, my explication will also be mistaken.
The picture that prompted your question has the file name "Yōshū Chikanobu Setsu Gekka Series II Bonkei.jpg". As you can see, the filename contains the term "bonkei" - to my knowledge, that term appears in error because the image portrays a bonseki, a small sand painting in a tray. In the text of the Wikimedia page where the image originally was uploaded, the term "bonkei" is not used (except, of course, in the filename). Wikimedia makes it difficult to change the filename of an uploaded item, so an initial error in the filename may be left in place for a long time or forever.
Because the filename contains the term "bonkei", the image has been attached to the Wikipedia Bonkei article a couple of times. It also appears correctly in the article Bonseki, where other similar images also appear. I have removed it from "Bonkei" again, so you will not experience the same confusion, but I have not been able to find an unencumbered bonkei image for the Wikipedia Bonkei article.
When I try to describe bonkei without a picture nearby, I say that they resemble a Japanese model train layout, not too large, but showing the countryside 300 years ago - that is, no trains. There are sculpted hills, valleys, streams, lakes or oceans, and little models of people, trees, animals, and buildings or other structures. All items are three-dimensional and properly scaled. It does not seem to be a very active art form these days, which may explain why photos are in such short supply.
^Behme, Robert Lee (1969). Bonsai, Saikei and Bonkei: Japanese Dwarf Trees and Tray Landscapes. William Morrow and Co., Inc., New York. p. 209. ISBN978-0-688-05205-8.
