A bento artist from Japan gained social media attention with their incredibly detailed edible portraits over white rice background. Nori bento is a common portable Japanese snack. But one food artist has managed to turn the simple meal into a work of art.
Miki Matsuura from Hiroshima creates bento portraits so detailed it is almost too good to eat. She started making those for her husband’s lunch during work. Her husband runs a local factory in Hiroshima, and she always packs a nice bento box for him. They almost always feature scenes or portraits of characters from his favorite TV series and manga.
She first sketches the design on a piece of paper and then transfers it onto the rice bed. The dark black is through the usage of bamboo charcoal.
The artist has always been interested in making intricate bento box art. She started making one for her son except bento art wasn’t in style back then and a quick meal is more preferable. But now her son is all grown up, and she has all the time in the world to make nice bento boxes for her husband.
She started sharing her bento box on Instagram and Twitter for fun, they eventually went viral. Some institutions even asked her to create bento boxes for various events. The Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum requested her to make a special Reiko elephant bento box for the recent “Ryusei Kishida Exhibition”.
She explained she loves the attention she receives for her art. But she loves surprising her husband with new designs every day even more.
For more of Miki Matsuura’s amazing bento art, check out her official website, NancyChannel