Many of us have seen (and probably owned) bonsais, but few of us have probably ever heard of bonkei, supposedly a similarly ancient Japanese art of creating micro-landscapes of foliage. If you want to dabble a bit in the craft, you might enjoy the Ienami, a series of planters designed to let you build your own fancy-looking landscape miniatures.
Made by Japanese household accessories brand Metaphys, the planters are styled to look like residential buildings over in the land of sushi with the rooftops covered in lush greenery. We don’t know if that’s actually a trend over there, but that’s definitely the story we’re sticking with when people ask what these planters are supposed to look like.
The Metaphys Ienami is a small indoor planter in a cube shape measuring 3.9 inches in all sides. It comes in four designs, namely hiroba (plaza), roji (alley), zigzag and tunnel, each one coming with differently-configured planting areas, ladders and ledges to complete the residential building appearance. While ideal for planting small foliage like moss as depicted in the pictures, we’re guessing you can grow other smaller, indoor plants in these — you’ll probably just have to do a lot of trimming to keet the whole urban dwelling aesthetic intact.
Each planter is made from stone powder, finished in a coat of white, making them ideal for painting over if you want to make your buildings life-like in appearance. Every model is sold separately.
You can order the Metaphys Ienami from Japan Trend Shop, priced at $53 apiece. Plants not included.