Little Old Trees
1500 AD
1499 1499
139.45E35.41N
ART

TOKYO, JAPAN
	Japan has always been crowded and there has never been much space for landscaping, but the Japanese love nature.
	The answer to this dilemma was to miniaturize. Hundreds of years before Japan became noted for small cars and little radios and other compact devices, the Japanese were creating miniature gardens, and even miniature trees.
	These trees -- some of them as old as 500 years -- are called "bonsai," meaning "plant in a tray." They look just like big trees, but are often less than a foot tall and are usually planted in a porcelain pot or tray. Gardeners carefully bend and trim their branches into beautiful shapes.
	Apparently the first of these trees were obtained from the wild. Wealthy Japanese would pay a high price for stunted trees which grew where there was little soil, or poor soil, such as in a crack of a large rock. Later, when the natural trees disappeared, the Japanese grew their own miniature trees.
