Around the 14th century, the term for dwarf potted trees was “the bowl’s tree” (鉢の木, hachi-no-ki). This denoted the use of a fairly deep pot, as opposed to the shallow pot denoted by the term bonsai.
Hachi-No-Ki (The Potted Trees) is also the title of a Noh play by Zeami Motokiyo (1363–1444), based on a story from c. 1383. It tells of an impoverished samurai who sacrifices his three last dwarf potted trees as firewood to provide warmth for a traveling monk on a winter night. The monk is an official in disguise who later rewards the samurai by giving him three lands whose names include the names of the three types of trees the samurai burnt: ume (plum), matsu (pine), and sakura (cherry). In later centuries, woodblock prints by several artists would depict this popular drama. There was even a fabric design of the same name.
Stories referring to bonsai began to appear more frequently by the 17th century. Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (r. 1623-1651) was a hachi-no-ki enthusiast. A story tells of Okubo Hikozemon (1560–1639), councilor to the shogun, who threw one of Iemitsu’s favorite trees away in the garden — in sight of the shogun — in order to dissuade him from spending so much time and attention on these trees. In spite of the servant’s efforts, Iemitsu never gave up his beloved art form. Another story from this time tells of a samurai’s gardener who killed himself when his master insulted a hachi-no-ki of which the artisan was especially proud.
Bonsai dating to the 17th century have survived to the present. One of the oldest-known living bonsai trees, considered one of the National Treasures of Japan, is in the Tokyo Imperial Palace collection. A five-needle pine (Pinus pentaphylla var. negishi) known as Sandai-Shogun-No Matsu is documented as having been cared for by Tokugawa Iemitsu. The tree is considered to be at least 500 years old and was first trained as a bonsai by, at latest, the year 1610. The earliest known report by a Westerner of a Japanese dwarf potted tree was made in 1692 by George Meister.
Chinese bonsai containers exported to Japan during the 17th and 18th centuries would become referred to as Kowatari (‘old crossing’). These were made between 1465 and about 1800. Many came from Yixing in Jiangsu province — unglazed and usually purplish-brown — and some others from around Canton, in particular, during the Ming dynasty.[19][20] Miniature potted trees were called hachi-ue in a 1681 horticulture book. This book also stated that everyone at the time grewazaleas, even if the poorest people had to use an abalone shell as a container.[21][22] Torii Kiyoharu’s use of woodblock printing in Japan depicted the dwarf potted trees from horticultural expert Itō Ihei’s nursery.
By the end of the 18th century, bonsai cultivation was quite widespread and had begun to interest the public. In the Tenmei era (1781–88), an exhibit of traditional dwarf potted pines began to be held every year in Kyoto. Connoisseurs from five provinces and neighboring areas would bring one or two plants each to the show in order to submit them to visitors for ranking.