Opening Day: Looks Delicious! | Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture
Category: Events Calendar
Date and Time
- Thursday, Sep 18, 2025 11am - 7pm
Location
Japan House LA: Gallery and Shop
6801 Hollywood Blvd
Details
Diners in Japan are often tempted into one of the country’s 1.4 million restaurants by the astonishingly realistic food replicas enticingly displayed in their windows. Known collectively as shokuhin sampuru or “food-samples,” these three-dimensional models showcase menu items in mouthwatering detail – so convincing that it can be hard to believe you can’t eat them!
Exhibit Dates: Sept 18, 2025 - Jan 25, 2026
Mon-Fri - 11:00AM-7:00PM
Sat-Sun - 11:00AM-8:00PM
Closed: Thanksgiving and Christmas Days
Fee: Free
Looks Delicious! | Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture is the first U.S. exhibition dedicated to this extraordinary craft. With origins in early 20th-century Japan, food replicas were initially made from wax. By the 1920s, these wax models began appearing in department store restaurants in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and beyond to showcase their expanding menus – that featured less-familiar Chinese dishes and yōshoku (Western-style food) – to a curious public. The trend spread quickly, and today these hyper-realistic models are crafted from durable synthetic resins and made to order for restaurants across Japan, becoming an endearing, iconic element of the restaurant experience. Through continued innovation and refinement, they have continued to evolve, moving beyond menu promotion into a uniquely Japanese form of cultural expression, now found not only in shop displays but also on goods ranging from keyrings to phone cases.
Organized in collaboration with world-leading food replica manufacturer Iwasaki, and curated by Simon Wright, Director of Programming at JAPAN HOUSE London, the exhibition features a broad collection of specially commissioned food replicas – notably one for each of Japan’s 47 prefectures across an expansive map – highlighting the country’s diverse culinary traditions.
Complemented by a slate of related programs featuring hands-on workshops, craft and culinary demonstrations, and a curated collection of food sample goods in the WAZA Shop, Looks Delicious! offers a vivid and tactile encounter with Japanese food culture, design, and hospitality. Much of this exhibition has been created thanks to the cooperation of those at Iwasaki Co., Ltd. (Osaka), Iwasaki Co., Ltd. (Tokyo), Iwasaki Mokei Seizo Co., Ltd. (Gujō Hachiman). JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles would also like to thank Central Japan Railway Company for their exhibition support and JAPAN HOUSE London for sharing this exhibition with us.
