Kokedama, The Search Is Futile

I wanted to know more about these pleasing lil Kokedama guys-

Ok, here’s where I admit my powers of online research fail me. I’m not even going to provide references or links right now. Here’s the general, and I will keep it brief, outline of what I can get about Kokedama..
It began in Japan, not surprising. It’s like some, and the phrase is purely American, poor man’s bonsai. Which leads to its relationship to bonsai and me saying, I don’t think that’s a fair asessment of Kokedama.
ETA drank a cup of tea, read some more, did some strike through and editing this again.

I read some forum threads of people getting pretty agitated about who had the right to define what bonsai was or wasn’t, and if kokedama was a form of it or not. While reading some really irritating commentaries on that I found very little about the origins of it. What I got to review again was more about the history of bonsai.
Putting On Pedantic Hat
Bonsai as an activity is quite old. However, about every hundred years or so the who,what, when, where, why, and how of it all has changed, sometimes even more frequently. The take on it that I feel like I’m getting from people who value gardening, with an emphasis on traditional Japanese gardening and bonsai in particular is that the culture is changing and Bonsai will change with it. That seems to be pretty much in keeping with how it has changed so far over the centuries. Obviously kokedama is such a departure that it has its own name. The subjects are rarely trees, far more frequently they are plants though sometimes shrubs.

Across the world things in almost every culture is are speeding up. In some ways that is very sad to me. Things; concepts, ideals, values,can be lost or forgotten or so changed that they are no longer recognizable. On the flip side it’s also exciting to see how traditional values, forms, methods are adapted

One Japanese blogger summed it up with, “moss balls or kokedama, are the less fussy cousin of bonsai where rules and methodology reign supreme.”
One of her kokedama-

I would be sad to see things so changed that everything invested in one method were lost. I don’t see that happening here though. I do wonder, and ultimately doubt that kokebama comes anywhere near being a substitute for bonsai. A quote that has left an impresion on me is that bonsai is an art form and not just a plant (or tree) in a pot because it seeks to represent an ideal of a tree.

I think the kokebama can be beautiful. I understand that for many things the context in which it is in is part of the art, but for something like the kokebama I think it’s of larger importance. Is something art just because it’s pretty? Ok Enough Of That. Back to strictly cute kokedama
so I’ll just…
Whipping off pedantic hat and hopping off of teetering soapbox I managed to step up on while pacing and diatribing.

I would like to try one and do photos as it grew into itself-

And 1 more because how can you not love a mossy rabbit?-