Bonsai, or "tree in a pot", was created in China at least one thousand years before Christ. In the 11th century some Buddhist monks imported it to Japan and there it spread widely during the following centuries. Only at the end of 19th century it was brought to Europe and to the rest of the world.
Result of an ancient eastern tradition, bonsai art was based on refined growing techniques, handed down generation by generation from great masters. It has come to us carrying a mystical world with it, a world animated by Zen philosophy, whose major aim is getting peace and harmony between Mankind and Nature by means of spiritual exercises.
Obviously Zen philosophy does not manifest only in bonsai plant growing, but also through the different arts related to it - once again expressions of the pursuit of inner equilibrium - as the art of self-defence, the tea art and the traditional music. Bonsai cultivation, on the contrary, has rapidly evolved in the course of centuries, getting rich in essential complements, pots and furniture, and refined ornaments for the trees, such as Suisekis and Ikebanas.
Especially long-living plants, if well grown, bonsai trees offer galleries of real cultivation, giving us the possibility to watch a show with no equal in nature.