Soy-bean, sushi, tofu, kimono, futon, bonsai, karate, jiu-jitsu, honcho and sayonara come from the Japanese.

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Sasha saw the prickly shape of the bonsai silhouetted against the window near her head.

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With a little deprecation, Lee described Singapore as a "tiny bonsai model" for China to learn from.

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Some adopt Japanese forms, such as kokedama and Bonsai, or serve as a reminder of the owner's travels.

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One of the basic problems was that it was overrun with sheep, which had "bonsai'ed" the property's ancient wild birches.

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Its exquisite garden of bonsai and carved stone animals was created by the brooding emperor Go Mizuno, whose poetry survives there in stone fragments.

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Michitaka Hirose, a professor specializing in virtual-reality technology at Tokyo University, traces Japan's thriving artificial entertainment industry to the art of bonsai, in which medieval nobility honed the reshaping of nature into an art form.

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Cory went all over the world on plant hunting expeditions to populate the garden, and his dedication to Dyffryn and to horticulture led to him having the largest bonsai collection in private ownership in 1912.

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But plenty of other groups have left their mark: behind one stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard all the gardens are planted with bonsai trees, the work of a colony of Japanese who settled there after internment during the second world war.

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