Description
Warm your hands with the newest addition to the museum store - this 11oz ceramic mug! Dishwasher and microwave safe, this classy piece will soon be your favorite for your next cup of goodness.
The Subalpine Fir Forest planting was created by artist Robert Kataoka from roadside seedlings he collected near Echo Park, Colorado in 1960. About 80 small trees had been collected over a period of three weekends, of which 47 were selected to plant on a sandstone slab.
This bonsai has been titled “Ronin” by the artist, in reference to the Japanese legend of the 47 Ronin, or samurai without a master. In the legend, the samurai’s beloved master was unjustly forced by an evil royal official to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). The Ronin avenged their master’s death with the certain knowledge that they would themselves be executed. The legend and this bonsai celebrate dedication, courage and loyalty in the face of death, and the trees in this bonsai - like the Ronin of legend - have succumbed until the forest has become a grove.
Over the years the tree suffered from wooly adelgid and many of the trees were lost.
