There is something about landscaped Japanese gardens that suggests timelessness, a phenomenon apparently contrary to that Japanese tendency to locate beauty in what is fleeting in this world.
A similar contradiction (and where would Japan be without its contradictions?) is found in the shaped trees that lend the gardens at least half of their timeless effect. While the techniques and aesthetics that govern the shaping of the trees date back beyond Heian times, the topiarists themselves, specifically ones who do it for a living, have a brief history.