Our people's intimacy with Nature is revealed on every hand. Their love of gardens is so strong that even a narrow passage-way is treated as a garden. Even a few inches of ground in front of the house are given up to grow a pine tree or a clump of bamboo. Under all sorts of circumstances there have been developed different forms of art, all purporting to satisfy their desire to be intimate with Nature. Hako-niwa (box-garden), a landscape in miniature, is one of them. We often come across them at the entrance, or at the window, of a workshop in a crowded city, some with gold-fish in a pond surrounded with moss, rocks, and trees, all on a miniature scale. Bon-kei (bonkei, tray-garden) is another. Porcelain, bronze, or cement trays, round, rectangular or oval in shape, varying in sizes from one to three or four feet across, are generally used for creating landscapes with mud, or half-formed peat from the swamp, and sand, some preferring old newspapers soaked in water, coloured and moulded to look like mud. Bon-seki (bonseki), the art of creating landscapes with stones and sand on black lacquered trays as a fitting decoration for the tokonoma, the alcove in the guest room, is still another. Bon-sai (bonsai), cultivation of dwarf trees, is still another evidence of our Nature-loving character. The art has been highly developed so that the trees are not only stunted to live in small pots for generations, but they are made to assume the shape and dignity of ancient trees according to their species. Thus in a room, in harmony with its surroundings, one may admire the stately beauty of an aged tree, which is to be seen only in some forest miles and miles away. Ike-bana, or flower arranging, is another branch of art long cultivated in Nippon. It has been developed into an ï¾µsthetic science and taught in girls' schools and in private homes by masters throughout the country. Our people's love of stones as shelf or alcove ornaments has existed for centuries, and one form of showing affection for them is to place those of chosen shapes in shallow trays with water and kept constantly wet, some for the sake of the beauty and freshness of their colours, and others to the end that they may finally grow moss and look like mountains or islands in verdure.
