Ninja restaurant designer creates tiny villages in bonsai trees

If you’ve ever wanted to see villages and merchant markets from your favorite role-playing games come to life, then we’ve got quite the collection for you. These are the amazing three-dimensional artworks of Takanori Aiba, a Japanese artist who also designed Ninja Akasaka, the famous ninja restaurant in Tokyo and the 1958-themed Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum.

Aiba is now drawing on his experience in architecture and combining it with his origins as a maze illustrator to produce stunning worlds within the tiny branches of bonsai trees and out of the crevices of unique rocks. From Ghibli-style seaside towns to a bustling hotel built inside the body of the Michelin man, these elaborate designs will simply take your breath away.

Aiba began his career in 1978 as a freelance maze illustrator, with his maze designs featured in Japanese fashion magazine POPEYE for ten years. In 1981, he turned his attention to designing art spaces, resulting in the hidden doors and surprising entrances of the Ninja Akasaka restaurant and the atmospheric alleyways of the Shin-Yokohama Museum. The breadth of his experience is clearly displayed in his latest project featuring these amazing miniature villages (see photos below).

The Lighthouse Series features two lighthouse designs, each created around two different Japanese "suiseki." Suiseki are small, naturally occurring rocks with unique shapes that resemble mountains, islands or waterfalls. They often reflect nature so perfectly they’re traditionally appreciated on their own in bowls or trays.

Aiba builds upon the natural lines and ridges of the suiseki to create his stunning designs.

Aiba’s bonsai designs play on the relationship between humans and nature. While traditional bonsai reflect the beauty of nature in miniature form, these artworks add themes of humanity and harmony to the continually evolving landscape.

Aiba has had an impressive career, continually using his creativity and imagination to surprise us in all sorts of different forms and mediums. We can’t wait to see where he takes us to next.

Sources: Tokyo Good Idea, Bonsai Empire

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