Bonsai, one of Japan’s proud traditional arts, is a living art form that reflects seasonal landscapes and philosophy in miniature trees. You may have seen it at least once in a movie or on TV, but learning about the Japanese sensibility and history behind it will deepen your appreciation even further.
In Hiroshima, bonsai has blended with the region’s unique history and aesthetics, offering a refined cultural experience that satisfies both your aesthetic curiosity and intellectual curiosity. Even if you’re visiting from abroad, you’re sure to feel the richness of Japanese culture in the tiny world that quietly unfolds within a bonsai pot.
Through Hiroshima’s unique bonsai tradition, you can savor special moments where tranquil natural beauty and deep cultural insight come together in harmony.
Hiroshima’s bonsai culture has thrived for over 400 years, dating back to the early Edo period. Long before “bonsai” became a term known worldwide, people here were cultivating the art of capturing nature’s scenery and philosophy in small pots.
In western Hiroshima City, the Koi district is often called the “birthplace of bonsai in Hiroshima.” In 1619, when Lord Asano Nagakatsu arrived to govern Hiroshima, a gardener who came with him began cultivating tree saplings in this area (＊1)(＊2). From then on, Koi became the landscaping center for the feudal domain — tending to the lord’s and samurai families’ gardens — while honing advanced techniques to miniaturize trees in pots.
Over time, these advanced techniques evolved into the bonsai art form we know today, which continues to be proudly passed down in the region. Some experts even claim that the bonsai techniques which later spread worldwide actually originated in Koi, Hiroshima (＊2), highlighting the significant historical role this area has played in the art’s development.
The appeal of Hiroshima’s bonsai culture lies not only in its deep history but also in the poignant stories it carries. For example, one nearly 400-year-old Japanese white pine bonsai cultivated in a garden in Koi — about 2.5 km from ground zero in 1945 — survived the atomic bombing, shielded by surrounding walls. Years later, its owner reportedly presented this precious tree to the United States as a symbol of peace (＊3).
That bonsai is still carefully displayed in the U.S. today, serving as a quiet living bridge of friendship and peace across the globe.
Hiroshima’s bonsai culture is deeply linked to the rich scenery of Miyajima, a World Heritage site. Miyajima (Itsukushima), a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, is famous worldwide for its iconic vermilion Great Torii gate and the mystical sight of green pines set against the blue sea — a view many Western travelers will recognize. The five-needle pine tree native to Miyajima has long been treasured in the bonsai world as a prized species.
In fact, the survivor bonsai mentioned above that endured the atomic bombing was grown from a Miyajima white pine. Its very existence — a 400-year-old tree that lived through ages of change — stands as a symbol of the strength and beauty of Hiroshima’s nature (＊3).
Bonsai artisans draw inspiration from Miyajima’s landscape — the pine trees towering against the blue sea and the island’s natural beauty that changes with each season — and they have devised ways to distill those grand sights into the confines of a small pot.
In Hiroshima and around Miyajima, you can see bonsai displays featuring pines connected to Miyajima. Seeing that majestic scenery captured in bonsai form — a perfect harmony of landscape and art — is like seeing “Miyajima in a single pot.”
In Hiroshima, special events and hands-on programs let you get closer to this time-honored art by interacting directly with local bonsai artisans. For example, at Niwayoshikaen — a venerable bonsai garden in Hiroshima’s Koi district with a 400-year history — the current proprietor, Mr. Matsutaro Chakuno, regularly hosts beginner-friendly workshops for visitors.
Mr. Chakuno, a true craftsman at heart, says that bonsai is part of Japan’s omotenashi (hospitality) culture — there’s joy in welcoming guests with something you’ve lovingly nurtured (＊4). In his workshops, participants experience the profound world of bonsai by creating their own mini bonsai. They discover the joy of nurturing life and get a feel for the spirit of Japanese culture.
Additionally, venues like the Hiroshima City Botanical Garden hold bonsai exhibitions and live demonstrations, offering opportunities to speak directly with local bonsai enthusiasts and up-and-coming young artists. Even the Hiroshima Shohin Bonsai Association has recently seen growth in younger members, signaling that the popularity of bonsai is slowly spreading (＊5).
Bonsai isn’t just something to admire — when you incorporate it into your living space, it can elevate your entire lifestyle with a touch of elegance. In Hiroshima, blending this traditional art with modern, sophisticated living has led to creative new endeavors. For example, a design hotel in Fukuyama City (eastern Hiroshima Prefecture) once showcased works by a young bonsai artist in its lobby for a limited period, allowing visitors from Japan and abroad to freely enjoy the art of bonsai (＊1).
If you want to truly savor the spatial beauty that bonsai creates, consider visiting a gallery or exhibit space in Hiroshima that showcases high-quality bonsai. Much like the hotel lobby display mentioned above, bonsai arranged in an elegant interior setting present a unique beauty blending Japanese and Western sensibilities, merging art with daily life.
Several galleries in Hiroshima City exhibit and sell bonsai, where you can encounter works ranging from classic masterpiece pines and junipers to inventive contemporary arrangements. One gallery, for example, places famous bonsai pieces in a tranquil sukiya-style Japanese room. Visitors can admire the moss-covered trunks and dignified spread of branches up close, softly highlighted by indirect lighting. Sitting back in a chair and gazing at a bonsai in this silence is a luxurious experience akin to admiring a masterpiece painting in a museum.
By stepping away from the noise of daily life and embracing the tranquility exuded by bonsai in a refined gallery setting, you’ll find your mind and body gently rejuvenated.
For an elegant moment surrounded by bonsai, consider a program that combines bonsai viewing with tea time. Hiroshima offers traditional tearooms and charming Japanese-style cafés where you can enjoy a drink while gazing at bonsai.
One unique option is a private workshop that pairs a bonsai-making experience with a tea ceremony. For example, at a historic shrine in Hiroshima City, a workshop allows you to create a small bonsai arrangement and then enjoy matcha tea and sweets in a quiet corner of the shrine’s pavilion (＊2). Savoring a cup of tea after crafting your own miniature wabi-sabi garden is an exceptional pleasure, said to provide full immersion into Japanese culture through all five senses.
Additionally, at a serene Japanese-style café in the city, bonsai and kokedama (moss ball plants) are subtly displayed on the tables, allowing you to enjoy coffee or tea while feeling the seasonal changes around you. Spending time in a green-adorned space like this soothes any travel fatigue and gently unwinds your mind. A luxurious tea time accompanied by bonsai will surely elevate your Hiroshima journey into an even more memorable experience.
Bonsai offers profound lessons even just by observing it, but engaging with the art yourself deepens your understanding of Japanese culture even further. Hiroshima’s bonsai experience programs are designed so that beginners and visitors from abroad can participate with confidence — a perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in traditional culture while having fun. By tending to or creating a bonsai, you can learn a great deal about Japan’s view of nature, its sense of beauty, and a mindful approach to craftsmanship. Let’s explore this appeal from two angles: workshops recommended for beginners, and the Japanese aesthetics and philosophy embodied in bonsai.
Hiroshima’s bonsai workshops are popular because they are welcoming even to absolute beginners. In the mini-bonsai workshop led by Mr. Matsutaro Chakuno at Niwayoshikaen, all materials — a small pot, seedlings, moss, stones — are provided, and you can combine them freely to create your own original bonsai. The instructor patiently teaches every step, from using the tools to shaping the tree, so there’s no need to worry even if you have no gardening experience.
In fact, one workshop even had a participant as young as four! Another story tells of a child who first joined in elementary school and loved it so much that they’ve returned almost every year since. With each session, they gradually learn techniques like wiring branches and pruning, and their family looks on warmly as both the child and their little tree grow together (＊1).
Bonsai is often called a “small universe” because it encompasses many Japanese aesthetic principles and philosophies. At first glance, it might seem like just a hobby of tending tiny potted plants, but in truth it carries the very essence of Japanese culture. A key concept here is wabi-sabi.
Wabi-sabi is the uniquely Japanese sensibility of finding quiet beauty in simple, unadorned things and accepting imperfection and impermanence. Bonsai embodies wabi-sabi: by condensing the atmosphere of vast landscapes or ancient trees into a tiny pot, it gives profound elegance even to scenes that may appear imperfect or incomplete. Bonsai trees are intentionally shaped with bumps and curves left in place so that the beauty within imperfection stands out — truly a living expression of wabi-sabi (＊2).
Hiroshima’s bonsai often depict in miniature a scene reminiscent of Miyajima’s weathered pines or moss-covered stones, their blend of fragility and resilience quietly stirring the viewer’s heart.
Furthermore, bonsai can impart philosophical insights. In the world of bonsai, opposing elements like life and death or eternity and impermanence coexist side by side. For example, the bleached white portion on an old bonsai’s trunk is called shari (literally “Buddha’s bones”), symbolizing how life and death inhabit the same tree (＊3).
From the sight of vibrant green leaves united with a withered trunk, one can feel profound themes such as the cycle of life and the concept of impermanence.
A journey into Hiroshima’s bonsai culture aligns perfectly with eco-conscious, sustainable travel. The bonsai world, which has engaged closely with nature for centuries, is rooted in a spirit of “treasuring resources and using them in a cycle,” a mindset that echoes the values behind today’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
People who uphold Hiroshima’s bonsai culture are careful to use nature’s gifts to the fullest and find creative ways to reduce waste. For example, at a bonsai and traditional crafts collaboration event in Miyajima-guchi, artisans of the feudal-era Miyajima Osuna-yaki pottery teamed up with Niwayoshikaen. They repurposed flawed pottery — which would normally be discarded — into bonsai pots.
Because this pottery is made with precious sand from Miyajima, none of it goes to waste — even a chipped vessel can be drilled for drainage and turned into a functional pot, while adding a mossy kokedama (moss ball plant) on top can give it charming new life. At the resulting bonsai and kokedama exhibit, displays featured small pines and moss arranged in cracked teacups, presenting a sustainable beauty where traditional craft and bonsai art fused brilliantly (＊1). Simply visiting bonsai spaces filled with such environmental mindfulness and ingenuity is itself a learning experience toward a sustainable future.
Moreover, traveling around Hiroshima to visit bonsai spots can be done in an eco-friendly way. Many bonsai attractions are easily accessible from the city by train or bus, so using public transportation helps shrink your carbon footprint. For instance, you can reach Niwayoshikaen in Koi via a streetcar and bus from Hiroshima Station, and the Miyajima-guchi area (the gateway to Miyajima) is conveniently accessible by JR train and ferry.
Even if you’re driving an electric vehicle (EV), rest assured: Hiroshima City and its surroundings have plenty of fast-charging stations, and some hotels (such as the Hilton Hiroshima, Clayton Bay Hotel, and Aki Grand Hotel) provide charging facilities for guests (＊2).
Let’s also consider the ecological value that bonsai holds. Bonsai cultivation is the antithesis of mass production and mass disposal — it’s a sustainable practice of tending a single tree over decades, even centuries. Some bonsai, if cared for properly, are said to live 500 to 800 years (＊3).
By welcoming a plant into your life and then passing it down through generations, you embody a non-disposable, circular sense of values. Hiroshima’s bonsai masters likewise take great pride in safeguarding the trees they’ve nurtured and passing them on to the next generation.
What’s more, even when a bonsai dies, it doesn’t mark an end. In Hiroshima, projects in collaboration with lacquerware artisans aim to resurrect bonsai that have lost their vitality by turning them into art objects (＊4). Using special techniques to treat a bonsai’s dead trunk or roots and rebirth it as a beautiful decorative piece, these initiatives preserve the bond between person and tree as a keepsake for posterity. This innovative endeavor also helps reduce waste — essentially a modern revival of the bonsai spirit of cherishing nature to the very end.
Hiroshima’s bonsai captivates from many angles — history, art, lifestyle, philosophy, and even environmental values. It offers exceptional beauty cultivated by 400 years of tradition and an intellectual story waiting to be discovered. Experiencing these for yourself, incorporating them into your life, and carrying them forward is the true joy of engaging with Hiroshima’s bonsai culture.
Think of a quiet moment in a gallery communing with a tiny forest in a pot; a cup of tea savored while admiring a bonsai; a creative workshop chat with an artisan as you shape a tree — all of these will enrich your spirit and become an unforgettable part of your journey.
Through Hiroshima’s bonsai experiences, which exquisitely satisfy both your intellectual curiosity and your five senses, your understanding of Japanese culture will deepen even further, adding new colors to your own lifestyle. For the sophisticated traveler who appreciates knowledge and beauty, Hiroshima’s bonsai culture is sure to deliver a truly special and moving experience.