"The majority of Japanese pictures were narrative - illustrating a story or legend, often reproduced in large numbers from woodcuts. (The lack of perspective and tonal depth in Japanese woodcuts could, in part, explain why a bonsai has a 'front', and is not a truly three-dimensional work of art.) To find a historical western equivalent we must look at artists such as Gustave Dor?? and Thomas Bewick" . . . . .