From Saitama City.
There are several views on where bonsai began. According to the Nippon Bonsai Association, the most likely one is that it came from China.
At least 2,500 years ago, in China’s Spring and Autumn period, people already enjoyed growing trees in pots. In China this was called penjing. Penjing came to Japan in the Heian period, and bonsai grew into a part of Japanese culture.
The oldest bonsai in Japan today is a five-needle pine from the time of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu. It is thought to be about 600 years old, and it still puts out new buds every year.
A bonsai has a front and a back, like a face and a back. You can find the front by looking at the branches.
A bonsai is nature made small. To feel its world, lower yourself and look up at it. Look first at the roots, which are like the foundation of a building.
Omiya Bonsai Village, in Kita Ward, Saitama City, began after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Bonsai growers in Tokyo, troubled by a lack of land, good soil, water and air as the city grew, found a new home there.
In 1928 the village union made unusual rules for living there: keep at least 10 bonsai, keep your gate open, build no two-story houses, and use hedges for fences. In 1936 there were 35 bonsai gardens in the village.
Saitama City’s Omiya Bonsai Art Museum opened on March 28, 2010. It is the first public bonsai museum in the world, and it cares for bonsai more than 100 years old.
There is no single right answer. Talking it over with someone at home is a good way to learn.