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Traveling Japan With Bonsai Boon Visiting The Art Works of a Legend Takashi Amano

Paul Kellum
Feb 22, 2016
2 min read

We took a day for random tourist activities and by chance visited they Sky Tree Aqurium in Japan and had the great pleasure of seeing the works of this great artist. We where all in Japan for the appreciation of the natural art of bonsai but we came across the displays of Takashi Amano. It falls into the same realm as bonsai because his work is a living breathing medium and embodies a legacy that lives on even after his passing last year.

Takashi Amano (天野尚 Amano Takashi?, 18 July 1954 – 4 August 2015) was a photographer, designer and aquarist. His interest in aquaria led him to create the Japanese company Aqua Design Amano.Amano was the author of Nature Aquarium World (TFH Publications, 1994), a three-book series on aquascaping and freshwater aquarium plantsand fish. He has also published the book Aquarium Plant Paradise (T.F.H. Publications, 1997).A species of freshwater shrimp is named the “Amano shrimp” or "Yamato shrimp" (Caridina multidentata; previously Caridina japonica) after him. After discovering this species' ability to eat large quantities of algae, Amano asked a local distributor to special order several thousand of them.[1] They have since become a staple in the freshwater planted aquarium hobby.He also developed a line of aquarium components that are known as ADA, and his "Nature Aquarium" article series appeared monthly in both Practical Fishkeeping magazine in the UK, and Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine in the US. He died in 2015 at the age of 61. (cited information Wiki.com)

The shrimp below can be found filling these aquariums and it has the name of this famous artist. Amano shrimp was a great tool used by Takashi Amano to keep the tanks clean so the work of art would not fade into disrepair.

These natural worlds can cause you to lose yourself and the pictures are amazing but much like bonsai cannot capture the grand scale of these plantings some exceeding 6' tall. Its not the size that that makes these works amazing it the attention to detail that goes into the daily maintain of pruning and feeding much like the bonsai we love.

Its not hard to lose yourself in these worlds of living art it was an amazing experience seeing these works of art in person and well worth the visit if you find yourself in Tokyo.

The bright lights are there for the plants health and are much like sun light so for taking pictures it helps a lot to get the amazing colors that you see in person. These are a few shots I took of the details.

I know this is not a bonsai post but I hope you can find a similar appreciation for artist who have just as much passion in there are and for first time more maintenance than the art of bonsai.