I'd also like to know more about Japanese bonsai gardening as a popular art form -- plus a guide on how to grow bonsai trees and shrubs.

Bonsai is the art of training everyday, average plants, such as Pine, Cypress, Holly, Cedar, Cherry, Maple, and Beech, to look like large, old trees just in miniature form. These trees range from five centimeters to one meter and are kept small by pruning, re-potting, pinching of growth, and wiring the branches.

Bonsai can be classified into five basic styles:
1. formal upright
2. informal upright
3. slanting
4. cascade
5. semi-cascade

These classifications are based on the overall shape of the tree and how much the trunk slants away from an imaginary vertical axis.

The numerous Japanese bonsai styles are principally variations of these five basic styles. The single trunk style is the basic design that is simplest to shape because the one trunk determines the overall composition.

The following link should be of some help to you http://www.bonsaisite.com/

Hello,
The Basic Styles For Beginner Bonsai Trees are as follows:
1). INFORMAL UPRIGHT which is for the beginners,

Following are some other styles of Bonsai:
2). FORMAL UPRIGHT
3). CASCADE
4). SEMI-CASCADE and
5). THE SLANTING BONSAI

The informal upright is similar to the formal upright, though the latter is more symmetrical. Where the formal upright is even in appearance, having pairs of branches alternating on either side of the design, the informal upright is slightly altered. Branches here may be vertical and horizontal, rather than only horizontal; a beautiful appearance for the proper sensibility.
The top in the informal upright is bent toward the viewer. While the trunk is not meant to be bent at all, it may be slightly slanted. In order to make this slant tilt away from the viewer, the tree should be trained so that the roots move forward and the tree will slant back as a means to balance itself out. To train the roots in this manner, watering primarily in the front of the pot and careful wiring can be utilized. A way to alleviate some of the work involved in training the roots in this manner is to choose a species that is not completely vertical; as they will be easier to move in this manner being that it correlates to their natural inclination.