With Lazlo's seeds, we wouldn't have to stop at one plant in a pot. Or a forest in a pot. I was just bowled over when I discovered that villages were done in a pot. Let me explain.
Once upon a time (1603), Tokugawa Iyeyasu gained control of Japan, and a Tokugawa shogun ruled Japan for the next 300 years or so until 1867. That period of time is known as the Japanese Edo period, particularly distinguished by the flourishing of the arts.
Well! The Shogun established the center of his government in the east in Edo (now known as Tokyo), and required all the lords (daimyo) to visit him once a year - the center of their government was in Kyoto in the west.
The main road along which the daimyo traveled from west to east and back again was called the Tokaido Road, and there were approximately 53 rest stops (stations) along the way. Over the centuries, many artists did series of woodcuts that depicted those stations, and one of the most famous ones was by Ando Hiroshige (1797 - 1858) (see http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/ )
In the 1840s, Yoshishige made a bonsai for each station along the Tokaido Road - "villages in a pot".
The beauty of Hiroshige's woodcuts and Yoshishige's bonkei of the 53 Stations along the Tokaido Road just stuns me. For an example of what I'm talking about, let's take Station 16 at Kambara. Following are two links so you can compare how Hiroshige and Yoshishige explicated Kambara in their respective art forms --
Station 16 at Kambara by Hiroshige I -
-- Click on http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/hiroshige_ando.html
-- Scroll down to Pictures from Image Archives, and then scroll down to University of Michigan SILS Art Image Browser and click on that.
-- Alrighty, you should now be here - http://www.si.umich.edu/Art_History/demoarea/htdocs/browser/Artist/Artist__H/HIROSHIGE_Hiroshige/ . Click on that.
-- You should now be here - http://www.si.umich.edu/Art_History/demoarea/htdocs/browser/Artist/Artist__H/HIROSHIGE_Hiroshige/ . Go to Row 2, and click on the snow scene that is 6 images from the left, and click on it again to expand it.
-- By now you should have arrived at the scan which is here - http://www.si.umich.edu/Art_History/UMMA/1948/1948_1.123.jpg . I do not know of any other scan that captures the shading and mood of this woodcut better than this one.
Now compare Hiroshige's woodcut of the Kambara station along the Tokaido road to Yoshishige's bonkei here - http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/detail-b327.htm
These woodcuts and bonkei's were done in all seasons - some with flowering orchards.
The main source of this post was here - http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/tokaido/tokaido_road.htm . Any mistakes in history or terminology are all mine.
I hope y'all have fun with this. I like to collect images like these on my hard drive for their beauty and the way they celebrate flowers and gardens and the passing seasons. Isn't that why we garden?
Karen
