When more than $20,000 worth of bonsai were stolen from Fukujyuen, a shop selling the carefully cultivated mini trees in Gunma Prefecture, Shuichi Baba felt anger but also deep sadness for the miniature trees he had lost.
¡°I even blamed myself,¡± Baba said of the disappearance of more than a dozen junipers and other plants he had nurtured for as long as two decades. ¡°Why couldn¡¯t I have woken up in the middle of the night to stop it?¡±
Baba isn¡¯t the only one to see his living creations purloined in the dark. There were about 30 cases of such theft last year, according to the Nippon Bonsai Growers Cooperative.
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