Hanging Kokedama: Creating Potless Plants for the Home

What is kokedama?

There is something intrinsically inviting and soothing about the form of kokedama, through the juxtaposition of its controlled and wild aspects. It is a manifestation of wabi-sabi, or the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection. All the elements which keep bonsai from falling into obscurity are also present in kokedama, but in a much more accessible format.

Economical design, which seeks to use a minimum of components, along with displaying natural processes and naturally occurring objects, is becoming increasingly mainstream. As more people choose to see the beauty in the roughness of nature, the room in their lives for meaningless clutter diminishes.

As a hobby, the art of making kokedama is as rewarding as it gets. The act of putting our hands in direct contact with natural materials literally grounds us. The wrapping process is very meditative; the action requires bilateral coordination – that is, to use both hands simultaneously and independently. And because both hands are required to wrap, and each must perform separate and independent actions, it is very difficult to think about anything else. One becomes completely present in the moment.