Takagi Bonsai Museum in Tokyo is Japan’s most gorgeous indoor Bonsai Museum.
It’s a place where people can enjoy artistic bonsai trees, precious bonsai pots and other items related to Bonsai, such as ukiyo-e, scrolls, calligraphies and more. Bonsai displayed here are heightened to the level of fine art.
The museum was opened in 1994 by Reiji Takagi the chairman of the Takagi Traditional Horticulture Foundation. He is a successful businessman and is the president of Meiko Shokai, Japan’s top shredder maker, which has 80 percent of the market share in Japan.
Takagi says that when he was 20, he picked up a pinecone from a mountain, planted it in a pot and it began to bud. More than 50 years have elapsed, and the tree vigorously salutes him every morning. When Takagi goes to the office, the tree, he says, pushes his back, saying “work well today.”
Takagi says, by nature, he loved plants and pine trees particularly. It taught him how to start to collect bonsai. He is now surrounded by more than 500 pots of bonsai. These bonsai have withstood harsh weather for many years, which commands his respect every day. Bonsai encourage him to fulfill his business goals and he has overcome various personal difficulties thanks to bonsai.
When he returns home, he stares at his bonsai and they invite him into the eternal world of nature. Any stress that he has built up during the day is completely relieved, and the bonsai help to give him strength that he needs for the following day.
He does not, however, want to monopolize these precious bonsai. He would like to further promote, develop and pass down this form of Japanese gardening culture to future generations.
If you go:
Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Monday
Access: One minute walk from Ichigaya Station of JR Chuo Line in Tokyo; 1-1 Goban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Admission: 800 yen
Information: 03-3262-1640
