NHK's documentary program "Document 72 Hours" (General TV, Friday 10pm) was set in a place called the "holy land of bonsai" in Saitama City on June 20th, and listened to the voices of people who communicate with bonsai while projecting their own images onto the trees during the season of fresh greenery.
The subtitle of the program that day was "Bonsai: A Small Universe in a Pot." In the area known as "Omiya Bonsai Village," where six bonsai gardens are gathered, there are no two bonsai trees that are the same, from those for beginners that cost around 1,000 yen to priceless masterpieces that are hundreds of years old.
People use scissors to trim the branches in their own way. An elementary school student lovingly holds a potted cherry tree. A woman is tending a bonsai tree inherited from her late father-in-law. A man who became the owner of a bonsai garden at a young age. What are they all looking at as they face the bonsai?
The program is a documentary program that sets up a camera at one location each time and observes the various human dramas that occur there for 72 hours. It listens to the stories of people who meet by chance and captures the "present" era.
