If you ignore the miniature sizes of the bonsai tree houses, nay the bonsai tree castles, created by Takanori Aiba, you would feel like moving into them! Such is the minute details that this amazing artist goes into in creating these incredible tiny worlds.
Aiba first selects an appropriate bonsai tree as the foundation. He fashions his elaborate stunning buildings on it, using copper line, plastic, resin, stone clay, and epoxy putty. The shape of the tree dictates the design of the diorama, the reason why no two treehouses look the same. He painstakingly includes the details, such as balconies, towers, patios, umbrellas, tiny strings of lights, and much else.
Born in Yokohama, Japan, Aiba studied Japanese traditional textiles and dyed clothing at Tokyo Zokei University. He started his career as a freelance maze illustrator. His maze works appeared in a Japanese fashion magazine ‘Popye’ for good 10 years. He went on to establish his own company called Graphics and Desingning Inc. He expanded his horizon and became a concept maker and art director for architectural spaces. Some of the major works of this Japanese artist include ‘Shin Yokohama Chinese Noodle Museum’, ‘Muse Du Petit Prince De Saint Exupery A Hakone’, NINJA AKASAKA, among others. Not content with this, he started using his expertise as a maze illustrator and architect to begin creating 3D artworks. He hit upon the idea of creating bonsai tree houses.
Aiba’s talent has been recognized and he has been conferred with many honors and awards, such as Japan Display Design Association Award, Hong Kong Design Award 2011 ‘Bonsai-B’, New York ADC Award 1995 ‘Shinyokohama Chinese Noodle Museum’, and many more. He has also had several publications to his credit, such as ‘Tokyo Good Idea Development Institute’, ‘Takanori Aiba’s Maze World’, and ‘Maze Metamorphosis’. He has also displayed his works in solo exhibitions in Japan.
Aiba shares his thoughts on bonsaiempire.com, “…I think bonsai (diorama) is a world of joy for imaginative people…. He adds, “…once I enter the bonsai (diorama) world I’ve created, I enjoy playing in that fantasy.”
Takanori Aiba
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