Bonsai, as we all know, is the Japanese art of growing miniature trees. Some bonsai trees are hundreds of years old while the technique itself is thousands. The art form has inspired other genres from painting to contemporary installation. But its latest iteration reimagines ordinary household vegetables as miniature bonsai toys.
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The brainchild of toy-maker Takara Tomy, “Bonsai” is a new line-up of miniature capsule toys hitting gachapon machines across Japan as we speak. From scallion and asparagus to broccoli and cauliflower, the collection consists of 5 varieties of veggie bonsai that have been pristinely shaped into sculptural forms that elicit a feeling of something ancient and wild.
And of course, no gachapon would be complete without some wordplay. Bonsai is written in Japanese as 盆栽, which literally means “plant in a container.” But in this iterations it’s written as 盆菜, a homonym that reads “vegetable in a container.”
Bonsai collectors and toy enthusiasts alike should be on the lookout for these at their local gachapon vendor. A complete list of vendors carrying this specific gachapon can be found here.
