From BabyMetal to Hello Kitty: 11 Wacky Japanese Trends to Love

Image via Facebook/Tatsuya Tanaka/Miniature Calendar

6. Miniatures: A Teeny Tiny Japanese Thing

I suppose it makes sense that in a small island country miniatures would be A Thing. As with everything else that’s a Thing in Japan, there are a number of Japanese miniature artists that do it superlatively.

Tatsuya Tanaka is a photographer and art director who loves the teeny tiny. I don’t just mean love in the normal way, I’m talking in the totally obsessed way. Enough that he takes a miniature photo Every Single Day and has for the past several years.

His ability to take normal sized objects and look at them at a smaller scale to use in posed scenes is utterly amazing and entrancing. Everything from food to everyday items and electronics are springboards of his imagination. Tanaka’s Instagram account is hours of endless delight and you won’t be able to stop clicking.

Yukari Morimoto’s miniatures often involve food and are hand crafted on a tiny scale. Weaving a basket the size of a nail using tweezers definitely takes some mad skillz. She produces mouthwatering masterpieces of teeny tiny food art.

A recent project entailed creating miniature summer festival stalls. There’s candy apples and takoyaki, battered octopus in the shape of a ball served with sauce. The last stall is a goldfish game where you net your own pet. The level of detail is incredible and you can marvel over it on both her Instagram and YouTube accounts.