As far as I know, historically, there were 3 styles of bonsai: Upright, slanted, and cascade. Over time these styles were refined into 2 additional styles: Informal-upright, and Semi-cascade.

I had found these styles to be too restrictive until I read John Yoshio Naka's book "Bonsai Techniques I". In his book John identified the options for each style and identified other styles that I was not aware of.

This section illustrates those styles and is a partial reprint of the styles found in his book. Special thanks to John Yoshio Naka for allowing us to reprint this information.

Images and content taken from from "Bonsai Techniques I" by John Yoshio Naka under express permission from the author. Dallas Bonsai holds all content and material rights reserved. © 2001 DallasBonsai.com