Bonsai as a pastime has become a modern day hobby ever since it started as a Japanese pastime in the Tokugawa period. Bonsai enthusiasts collect various kinds of bonsai and grow it in their garden. They can even bring it inside their homes in little containers.

World renowned Bonsai artist Masahiko Kimura has earned acclaim not only in Japan but in various parts of the globe because of his work. He has won numerous accolades including the Prime Minister Award in 1988, 1995, 2000, and 2001. He also won the Minister of Education in 1999.

Now, Kimura's artistic works on bonsai plants are often photographed. With permission, his works are uploaded online. By checking out Kimura work, you will notice how detailed his designs are. He sometimes sets the bonsai on stones. Later on, you will see that even the stones were part of the entire canvas.

In fact, Kimura's award-winning works have been published in various books, one of which is "The Bonsai Art of Kimura" written by Katsuhito Onishi. In this 175-paged illustrated book, a bonsai enthusiast gets a glimpse of Kimura's step by step process in styling bonsai. They get a peek in why Kimura is called "The Magician."

Kimura's contribution to bonsai as a pastime is that he presents multiple possibilities on the styling of bonsai and he concretizes it by showing to his audience that it can be done.

Because he is known as the best bonsai artist alive, Kimura often attends conventions and exhibits that concentrate on the art of growing and cultivating bonsai. He also performs live designing of bonsai, sometimes with his contemporaries such as Ernie Kuo. The bonsai convention they both attended in 2000 that was held in Dallas remains to be one of the most interesting conventions due to the fact that two master bonsai artists were there onstage.

In these conventions and exhibits, Kimura motivates other bonsai enthusiasts that turning the vision of how the bonsai should look like can become a reality even when there is limited time.

With bonsai as his magic trick, The Magician Masahiko Kimura contributes his knowledge to bonsai enthusiasts and shares instructions based on his experiences in growing, cultivating and designing bonsai.

By offering his audience a taste of the pleasure in designing bonsai, Mahahiko Kimura has shown that bonsai is a relaxing hobby that anyone can do. By merely investing in a bonsai plant and reading a couple of books about the subject, anyone can design a bonsai in the very way he wants.