Sampuru: The Art of Japanese Food Replicas

If you’ve ever been to Japan, you may have seen restaurant windows displaying realistic food offerings in order to entice diners. This practice of displaying food samples, what the Japanese call “sampuru” , was first recorded in 1917. They were made from wax by a model maker named Soujiro Nishio .

Since restaurants didn’t often use menus during that time to present their food, the models were seen as particularly creative. Interestingly, Nishio ‘s main job was not designing and making the saucers, but working with doctors making models for pathological studies, such as skin diseases and human organs.

Although Nishio may have been the first, the man who deserves credit for making food models what they are today is Takizo Iwasaki , whose company Iwasaki Be-I was established in 1932 and remains the leading provider of food plastic and wax. Iwasaki Be-I is estimated to provide up to 60% of all realistic fake food dishes found across the country.

Sampuru are, for the most part, handmade from non-biodegradable plastic or PVC, and while there are some ready-to-buy and ready-to-use pieces, most Japanese dishes you see in restaurants are custom, made from molds created with real dishes from the restaurants themselves.

To make the fake food look especially realistic, the plates are colored by hand with paint or airbrushes. It takes a lot of work and care to make these sampuru – these pieces of culinary art do not come cheap as, for example, a beer display model might cost a restaurant owner around $150 USD.

It is curious that restaurants invest large amounts of money to decorate their windows with plastic copies, with both Japanese and Western-style dishes. However, they have found that it is easier for customers, both local and international, to know what they are eating by seeing it first before ordering.

These realistic food samples might have started out as marketing and advertising tools as well as visual aids for restaurants, however these days they have a new purpose: tourists buy these samples as they consider them to be unique souvenirs to give to family and acquaintances. in his country. You can choose from a wide variety of sample foods, from donuts to cakes and from eggs to pieces of fruit.