bonsai
"planted on a tray"

Character	Components	Japanese (Romanized)	Meanings
		bon  sai	tray  planting

sai  boku, moku, ki

judge, decide, cut -- derived from a fancy halberd which might have been thrust into the ground as a marker, used phonetically to express "to plant"  tree with sweeping branches, wood

NOTES

Henshall, Kenneth G.  A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters (Rutland, VT and Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company; 1988), characters no. 69, 872, 1228, 1828.