Nagahama Plum Bonsai Exhibition

Every winter from early January to early March, around 90 ume plum bonsai fill the rooms of Keiunkan, a guesthouse built in 1887 in Nagahama. The annual exhibition has been held since 1952 and draws from a collection of about 2,000 plum bonsai, including roughly 400 varieties. The largest trees reach nearly three meters tall, large by bonsai standards, and some are believed to be 400 years old. Trees are selected and presented at peak bloom, with white and pink blossoms massed in rooms throughout the historic building. Keiunkan and its Japanese garden are open year-round apart from mid-March, and on snowy evenings the bamboo lanterns in the garden are worth seeing.