From the “leaning tower of pizza” to a fish slicing and cooking itself, and a dragon emerging from a dragon fruit, Japanese artisans’ quirky plastic food sculptures went on display last week at an exhibition in Tokyo.
The models were made with the same painstaking detail as the rock-solid noodle soups and crispy-looking plastic snacks that have long been displayed outside Japanese restaurants where they are called shokuhin sampuru, or “sample food products.”
Sampuru have been common sights outside ramen shops and family restaurants across Japan since a century ago, when stores began using wax models to advertise their menus to a growing middle class.
Photo: AFP
“Normally we have to follow orders from clients. We take their views on board when we’re making items,” plastic food artist Shinichiro Hatasa said.
When dreaming up fun designs, however, “you can use your imagination. How it ends up is totally up to you,” he said.
For the exhibition, Hatasa crafted an ear of corn leisurely sunbathing on a beach.
Other creations on display included a deep-fried shrimp with four breaded legs roaming like a tiger on a mountain of shredded cabbage, and a Tetris game made of chicken.
A Japanese breakfast dish of fermented soybeans called natto appeared to spiral in the air, resembling a powerful cyclone — nicknamed, naturally, a “nattornado.”
About 60 sculptures were on display, some silly, but others designed to showcase the artists’ formidable skills.
“They are not real, but they look so real. It’s wonderful,” exhibition attendee Reiko Ichimaru said.
All the models were handmade by specialists at Iwasaki Group, Japan’s leading sampuru maker, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.
At an Iwasaki factory in Yokohama near Tokyo, artisans first take molds of ingredients from actual meals cooked by the firm’s restaurant clients.
Then they begin the meticulous work of decorating the samples to look as realistic as possible, from moisture droplets on chilled glass to subtle bruises on a fruit’s surface.
“Fresh things are more difficult to make. Fresh vegetables, fresh fish. Cooked items are easier,” because the colors are less complicated, factory head Hiroaki Miyazawa said.
“Hamburger patties are for beginners,” he added.
Fake food is a lucrative market in Japan, but sampuru production has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced demand for dining out.
Sampuru makers hope more tourists are soon allowed into the country to boost the restaurant industry, but they are also putting their unique skills to use elsewhere.
For example, Iwasaki artisans have made replica bananas at different degrees of ripeness for factories to use to train new employees.
Orders have also come in from IT sales merchants, who want to use mock 5G Wi-Fi routers in their presentations.
At the exhibition, some of the more unique offerings are delighting children and adults alike.
“I think the number of restaurants using plastic food displays is decreasing,” exhibition attendee Yutaka Nishio said. “It’s interesting to preserve this as art. It’s really great.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS