By Ines Keane
Most craft districts grow slowly and by accident. This one came with a rule book. According to the village’s own history page, anyone who wanted to live in Omiya Bonsai Village had to own at least ten bonsai, open the garden to the public, avoid building a two-storey house, and keep a hedge as a living fence. That is an unusual set of conditions for a place to live, and it tells you what the founders wanted: a quiet lane of gardens that strangers could walk through.
Where it is
The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), a national tourism board, places the village in Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture, about 30 minutes north of Tokyo by train, in Bonsai-cho, Kita-ku. The tourism board gives two short walks: five minutes from Toro Station on the JR Utsunomiya Line, or five minutes from Omiya-Koen Station on the Tobu Urban Park Line. A 2019 travel article gives four minutes from Omiya-Koen and ten from Toro, so we give both and choose neither.
Why it began
Two sources agree on the cause. The Great Kanto Earthquake struck in 1923. JNTO says many bonsai merchants from Tokyo and Yokohama moved to Omiya afterwards, drawn by a large area with fresh water and air. The village’s own page says professional bonsai gardeners from Tokyo moved north in search of space, clean air and water suited to growing trees. An airline travel planner adds that the artisans came from Tokyo’s Dangozaka area. The village, both the tourism board and its own page say, was established in 1925.
Our reading: the move was practical before it was romantic. A trade that keeps living trees in small pots needs water, clean air and room, and a city that has just been shaken apart offers none of the three.
Who is named
The village’s history page names Shimizu Ritaro, also known as Seian, as someone who contributed greatly to the founding. It says that in March 1935, at the village’s tenth anniversary, volunteers put up a monument in his honour. It also names Kato Saburo, who lived from 1915 to 2008, as third-generation owner of Mansei-en and executive committee chairman of the first World Bonsai Convention. We name only these two historical figures, and no one still working there.
How many gardens?
Here the sources split, and we show it side by side.
- JNTO, the tourism board, lists six bonsai gardens or nurseries by name: Kyuka-en, Seikou-en, Toju-en, Fuyo-en, Mansei-en and Shosetsu-en.
- The 2019 travel article says the village has 15 bonsai nurseries, and names five open-air gardens: Fuyo-en, Kyuka-en, Seiko-en, Mansei-en and Toju-en.
- The village’s own history page gives no count.
The names overlap and the spellings differ by a letter or two. We cannot tell from these pages whether the gap is a matter of what counts as a garden, or of the date. Our reading: a count of six may mean the gardens open to visitors, and fifteen may include smaller businesses. Neither page says so.
The museum next door
JNTO says the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum stands next to the village and calls it “the world’s first publicly run museum dedicated to the art of bonsai”. It adds that the museum also holds bonsai-related ukiyo-e prints and historical and folklore materials. An airline travel planner describes two main parts, a collection gallery and an exhibition room, arranged around a bonsai garden. The main gallery and a zashiki-kazari area for interior display change weekly to follow the season. The garden holds about sixty works at any time, and the largest, a five-needle pine named Chiyo-no-Matsu, sits on a turntable so that it can follow the sun. These are promotional descriptions.
Milestones in the wider world
The village’s history page says the 1970 Osaka Expo bonsai and suiseki exhibition was made up mostly of trees from the village. The first World Bonsai Convention, in Omiya in 1989, ran four days with about 1,200 participants from 32 countries. The eighth, in Saitama in 2017, drew about 120,000 visitors from more than 40 countries and regions, counting related events. JNTO gives the same two years.
Dates in order
- 1923: Great Kanto Earthquake; gardeners begin moving, according to JNTO and the village.
- 1925: village established, according to JNTO and the village.
- March 1935: monument to Shimizu Ritaro at the tenth anniversary, according to the village.
- 1970: bonsai from the village feature at the Osaka Expo, according to the village.
- 1989: first World Bonsai Convention in Omiya, according to the village and JNTO.
- 2017: eighth convention in Saitama, according to the village and JNTO.
What kind of sources these are
The national tourism board, the village’s own history page, a 2019 travel-site article and an airline travel planner. Two are promotional by nature, and the village’s page is a producer describing itself. We read no independent history, so every claim above is the district’s account of itself, or a tourism body repeating it.
What we left out
Opening hours, closing days, admission, festival dates (the 2019 article gave a year long past), and anything about buying or shipping trees, which no source covered. We also left out one article’s claim about where bonsai began, which we could not source to a second page.
Quick answers
When was Omiya Bonsai Village founded?
According to the Japan National Tourism Organization and the village’s own history page, it was established in 1925, after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake pushed bonsai gardeners out of Tokyo.
How many bonsai gardens are there in Omiya?
It depends on the source. The tourism board names six gardens, while a 2019 travel article says the village has 15 nurseries. The village’s own page gives no number.
What rules did the founders set for residents?
The village’s history page says residents had to own at least 10 bonsai, open their gardens to the public, avoid two-storey houses, and use hedges as living fences.
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Roam first. Shop later.