TOKYO -- My first encounter with Japanese plastic food models was in 1986, watching director Neil Jordan's neo-noir crime film, "Mona Lisa," in which a shifty businessman with a warehouse full of faux food samples points to a table covered with models. "You fancy a fiberglass fruit flan?" he inquires of a perplexed client, "or a polystyrene tutti frutti?"
Tea Leaves
Japan gives us faux food for real thought
Tokyo's Kappabashi district elevates plastic models to level of artwork
A dizzying -- and inedible -- display of grilled sweet fish, fruit and champagne on ice at a store in Tokyo's Kappabashi district. (All photos by Stephen Mansfield)
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