Japan House London introduces food replica culture

Japan House London, a Japanese culture center in the U.K., is introducing replica food from the Asian country in its latest exhibition featuring specialties from each of the country’s 47 prefectures.
Food replicas, which were first made in Japan and are displayed at restaurants across the country, have recently become popular among foreign tourists as souvenirs.
Elaborately made food samples that could be mistaken for real food are a unique part of Japanese culture, Simon Wright, director of programing at Japan House London, said of the exhibition, titled, “Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s food replica culture.”
The highlight of the exhibition that began on Oct. 2 is dishes from each prefecture arranged on a table in the shape of the Japanese archipelago, including “zunda mochi” rice cakes coated with a crushed sweet soybean paste from Miyagi Prefecture, and Shinshu soba buckwheat noodles from Nagano Prefecture.
In an interactive zone, visitors can create their own bento boxed meals using replica food. Christina Shin, 25, said with a smile: “The craft is really cool. If a pub had this and they displayed all the food they sold, I would buy it.”
“With food replicas, people can choose what to eat even if they can’t understand the language,” Tsuyoshi Iwasaki, president of Iwasaki, a traditional food replica maker in Tokyo, said, expecting business opportunities overseas.