HILUXURY – Hawaii Luxury Magazine

Photo courtesy Kahi Ching

"Lucky Banyan i" from the lucky Banyan series. ching spent 12 years working on this tree

Photo courtesy Kahi Ching

Photo courtesy Kahi Ching

"The Art of Bonsai by kahi ching" exhibit was held at Waikiki's doubletree alana hotel in november 2009. from left to right: a rubber tree transformed (originally growing out of a tire tube and salvaged from a green waste facility); a banyan tree (from kahi's collection); and a mock orange tree (saved from a construction site)

Photo courtesy Kahi Ching

"Tiger Claw" bougainvillea. this tree had been termite-eaten and bulldozed when ching found it. he was able to revive it, and spent 12 years working with it. this picture shows some of the carving techniques ching used to achieve a weathered look

Artist Kahi Ching explores the philosophies and technique of this garden tradition

Before you condemn that unruly tree in your yard to the mulch pile, call Kahi Ching. Ching, an acclaimed painter and sculptor, is known as “the tree doctor” because of his penchant for saving trees from the chopping block. Where others see rubbish, he sees art – bonsai art.

Bonsai – literally “tray cultivation”- is the art of miniaturizing trees through pruning, watering and potting.

Ching employs a number of methods to shape his trees, including the use of hand tools he designed for the purpose. His background in woodwork (one of his wood carvings won an award from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and is currently part of the Hawaii State Museum collection) brings added insight.

“Carving helped me to understand how different woods grow, where they come from,” he says. “When working with trees, you have to be sensitive to keeping the trees alive. You pay attention to life. You have to be patient with its growth, more patient than when you’re working on a painting or a sculpture.”

His fascination with trees began when he was about 5 years old and began tending to a sapling that had taken root among the stones that bordered his family’s koi pond. The word “bonsai” wasn’t part of his vocabulary then, but he spent time crouched by the tree, pruning and clipping. He still has that tree today.

In 1997, he took a trip to Japan to study with a bonsai master. There, he learned to look to nature for visual cues that he could apply to his bonsai.

His small yard is crowded with dozens of bonsai trees – ranging in size from a few inches to more than 4 feet tall – that he’s collected and cultivated over the years. He estimates that at one time he had more than 160 bonsai. A typical bonsai tree has short leaves or needles and a woody stem. Ching’s bonsai, by contrast, tend to be whatever plant catches his eye.

On a recent afternoon, Ching walked through his front yard, recalling how he found each tree: The bougainvillea he’s had since he and his wife, Diana, were married nine years ago (he saved it from under the tire of a tractor in Mililani); the Chinese banyan tree given to him by a fellow bonsai artist; the 100-something-year-old jade tree, relinquished by a friend who no longer wanted to maintain it.

“I let the tree speak for itself,” Ching says. “Bonsai is more than a tree in a pot. Bonsai is living with a tree, growing with a tree.”

As Ching speaks, it becomes clear that bonsai is a metaphor for his life philosophies: Care for the environment; use what the earth provides; seek beauty in all things.

Kahi Ching’s bonsai are available for rental. Rates start at $300 and include the transport of the tree and on-site maintenance. For more information about Ching’s bonsai and other art, visit www.kahiching.com or call 808-561-1032. r