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literally translates as "planted landscape". Saikei is a descendant of the Japanese arts of bonsai, bonseki, and bonkei, and is related less directly to similar miniature-landscape arts like the Chinese ''penjing'' and the Vietnamese ''hòn non bộ''. It is the art of creating tray landscapes that combine miniature living trees with soil, rocks, water, and related vegetation (like ground cover) in a single tray or similar container. A saikei landscape will remind the viewer of a natural location through its overall topography, choice of ground materials, and the species used in its plantings. A typical saikei is contained in a large ceramic tray with low sides. Within the tray, rocks and soil are arranged to suggest a natural landscape, often modeled on a specific type of real landscape like a seaside or a mountain path. Small living trees are planted in the soil and may be arranged to emphasize perspective, for example, with smaller trees to the rear of the display. The trees themselves are similar to, but less elaborately shaped than, bonsai trees. They are selected and cultivated to look like mature trees that match the simulated landscape they grow in. Non-tree plant specimens may also grow in the saikei, such as ground cover or other small plants that help evoke the landscape. Saikei differs from the related Japanese art forms in some key ways. According to Lew Buller, Toshio Kawamoto (the founder of the saikei form) "was adamant that his living landscapes were not bonsai", citing saikei rules such as the mandatory use of stones, and the placement of trees and roots above the rim of the tray. Bonsai uses stones as the base for a tree or trees in the root-over-rock style (Sekijoju) and growing-in-a-rock (Ishizuke) styles, but does not form landscapes from mixed stones and soil. The shape of the ground is very important in saikei, where it is of reduced or non-existent importance in bonsai. In general, saikei concentrates on the evocation of a natural living landscape, rather than on the character of individual trees as emphasized in bonsai. The arts of bonseki and bonkei also depict miniature landscapes in trays, but do not incorporate living trees or other flora. In bonseki, simple landscapes are portrayed on flat trays using sand and stones. In bonkei, rocks and sculptable materials (e.g., cement) are formed into hills and mountains rising out of ground materials like sand and gravel. Miniature figures of people, animals, buildings, and other outdoor elements may be placed on a bonkei but would be out of place on a saikei. The presence of living materials means saikei are challenging to preserve and display relative to bonkei. ==History== The school of saikei was founded in Japan by Toshio Kawamoto after World War II. Kawamoto was born in 1917, the eldest child of the bonsai master Tokichi Kawamoto, and was trained in the art of bonsai. In 1960, following his father's death, he ran the family bonsai nursery Meiju-En. He actively promoted the practice of saikei after this time, publishing two seminal books on saikei (''Bonsai-Saikei'' and ''Saikei: Living Landscapes in Miniature'') and participating in the creation of the Nippon Bonsai-Saikei Institute and the Nippon Saikei Association. At the time Kawamoto began developing the rules and form of saikei, the practice of bonsai was at a critical low point in Japan. The labor-intensive cultivation of bonsai had been near-impossible under wartime conditions. Many bonsai, in development or completed, had died in the nation's major collections, as well as in the gardens of individuals across the country. Post-war economic conditions made the purchase and cultivation of a real bonsai almost impossible for average Japanese households. Kawamoto created a simple form of tree display providing many of the aesthetic and contemplative qualities of bonsai, while also supporting the cultivation of plant stock that could eventually be used as bonsai material. He based this art form mainly on the principles of group plantings from bonsai and rock displays from bonkei and bonseki. His original objective was to age and thicken up the trunks of young nursery stock. Saikei was a way for inexpensive plants and stones to be brought together in a pleasing arrangement, easily accessible to the average person. As a saikei specimen aged, it would produce candidate bonsai trees, which could be removed from the saikei for cultivation as bonsai. As a relatively young art form, Japanese saikei does not have deep traditions of its own. But it is related to a number of older confined-landscape forms popular in Asia, including Japan's ''bonkei'', the Chinese art of ''penjing'', and the Vietnamese art of ''hòn non bộ''. The term penjing applies both to individual trees growing in containers, similar to bonsai, and also to detailed miniature landscapes which include trees, other plants, rocks, soil, water, and miniature figurines of people, animals, and other items. Similarly, ''hòn non bộ'' emphasizes the creation of stylized miniature islands projecting from a body of water and carrying a burden of trees and other plants. In post-war Japan, saikei was seen as an environmentally and economically responsible way to propagate trees for eventual use in bonsai. Even economically constrained individuals or families could enjoy many of the contemplative and aesthetic benefits of bonsai, without incurring the effort and the costs related to mature bonsai specimens. The same benefits accrue to saikei today. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「saikei」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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