Issen

About The Entry

“To be reborn is to unveil the unseen.”

Scapes is a brand rooted in the belief that bonsai is not merely an art of preservation, but one of transformation. Drawing from the cycles of nature—growth, decay, and renewal—Scapes reimagines bonsai as a medium where artificial materials and organic life coalesce to express the diversity and impermanence of existence.

Founder Shuzo Hamachi breaks away from traditional forms, integrating materials like stainless steel and acrylic with living plants. His work explores the blurred boundary between nature and human intervention, inviting viewers to contemplate the evolving essence of life itself.

This Goyomatsu bonsai once had a branch extending from its right side. After the branch broke, Hamachi sought not to restore it, but to revive it in a new form. He applied a technique known as JIN, a traditional method that reveals the spirit of a tree by exposing and shaping deadwood. Through this, he reimagined the missing limb’s silhouette.

A stainless steel bolt, integrated as a synthetic limb, was embedded into the trunk. From this new extension, fresh flowers bloom—an intentional fusion of the lifeless and the living. What once was lost now returns, not as it was, but as something transformed—proof that life, in all its forms, continues to evolve through creative force.

In this piece, the artificial does not oppose nature, but participates in its story. Scapes embodies a quiet rebellion against stagnation, illustrating how design can sensitively support the regeneration of life’s expression.