Hakone Retreat före & villa 1/f to Host "Koniwa Bonsai" Workshop for Hotel Guests on November 2 and 3

Hakone Retreat före & villa 1/f, a forest resort hotel surrounded by rich nature in Sengokuhara, Hakone, will hold a "koniwa bonsai" (小庭盆栽, small-garden bonsai) workshop for hotel guests on two days: Monday, November 2, and Tuesday, November 3 (national holiday), 2026. The workshop is led by Hiroko Watanabe (渡辺浩子) of Edaroji (枝露地), who works on bonsai exhibitions, sales events, and workshops and is joining the hotel as a creator ambassador.

Participants will use saplings, plus natural materials such as moss and stones gathered in advance on the hotel grounds, to create a small garden with their own ideas. Rather than simply looking at Hakone's nature, the workshop invites guests to touch the materials and build a landscape with their own hands, offering an experience that makes the nature of the area feel closer.

No knowledge of bonsai or special skills are required. Guests bring out the character and branching of the plants, combine moss and stones, and shape a landscape according to their own sensibility. Not only the finished piece but also the quiet time spent facing the plants and working with the hands is an important part of the experience.

The workshop offers a moment to engage with bonsai, a traditional Japanese culture, embraced by the forest at Hakone Retreat. Together with the space of the historic ryotei (traditional Japanese restaurant) "Hyoseki" (俵石), it offers a new way to enjoy a stay by taking home a memory of the trip as a small garden.

Turning Hakone's Nature into a Small Landscape

The theme of this workshop is "Turning Hakone's Forest into a Small Garden" (箱根の森を、小さな庭に). Participants choose materials such as saplings, moss, and stones themselves and build a single landscape inside a pot. By combining the materials while looking closely at their shapes, colors, and the branching of the plants, each person ends up with a different scenery, even when using the same materials.

The moss and stones are gathered in advance on the grounds of Hakone Retreat. With consideration for the natural environment and safety, the hotel incorporates materials that let guests feel the character of the local land, aiming for an experience that connects time spent in Hakone with the making of a piece.

Bonsai is an art of creating scenery from nature and the mind on top of a small pot. Just as beauty is found not only in flowers and leaves but also in the branching of a tree after its leaves have fallen, bonsai has a depth beyond visible beauty. In this workshop, rather than being caught up in difficult knowledge or technique, participants enjoy touching plants and finding their own landscape.

The Instructor: Hiroko Watanabe of Edaroji

Watanabe came to bonsai after working in flower arrangement (kado) and floral design. While working with cut flowers, Watanabe encountered bonsai and was drawn to the way it changes little by little with the seasons and years. Under the shop name "Edaroji" (枝露地), Watanabe now holds bonsai exhibitions, sales events, and workshops, and creates plant decorations for ryotei and exhibition spaces. The approach is to bring out the branching and character the plants naturally have, offering bonsai that anyone can enjoy in daily life.

What Watanabe values is not shaping a tree with excessive wiring or pruning, but making as few alterations as possible and bringing out the branching and expression the tree already has. In container plantings, plants are combined with reference to the vegetation of actual forests, aiming for pieces that can be enjoyed in everyday life even without specialized bonsai knowledge or technique.

"Bonsai is an art of creating the scenery of nature and the mind on top of a small pot." Watanabe's wish to share a time in which each participant creates a landscape as they feel it, facing plants, moss, and stones, came together with a stay at Hakone Retreat, where guests spend time with nature, and made this workshop possible.

Instagram: @edalogie

Time Spent with Your Hands in Nature at Hakone Retreat

Hakone Retreat före & villa 1/f is surrounded by the forests of Sengokuhara, Hakone. In a place where guests can feel the expressions of the trees and the changing light, touching plants, placing moss and stones, and creating a small landscape means stepping away a little from the pace of daily life and facing the materials in front of you. It offers discoveries different from a stay spent only looking at nature. Guests can take home the nature they encountered on their trip as their own small garden, and experience the local climate and Japanese culture through bonsai.

Workshop Details

• The materials used have been prepared in advance.
• Program content may change.
• Depending on the weather and other conditions, the content and venue may be changed, or the workshop may be canceled.