By day, Keisuke Yamada is an electrician. By night, he's a master banana artist, peeling, sculpting, and, yes, eating.


While Yamada's art might not be the most beautiful you'll see, it is the most delicious.

Earlier this year, Yamada's banana art, which he uploaded to Japanese art site Pixiv, became an internet sensation. It was the combination of his sculptures and choice material. Nobody had really seen anything like his work.


While others might have simply seen fruit, Yamada saw dragons, movie characters, and manga archetypes. Then, he brought them to life.

To create his art, the self proclaimed perfectionist uses a toothpick and spoon.

'It began when I peeled a banana and thought it might be interesting to carve a face into the fruit."

Bananas aren't exactly an ideal material. There's only a short window time before they begin to change color and texture after being exposed to the air and rot. Yamada must work quickly, and each banana sculpture takes about an hour.

G/O Media may get a commission Subscribe and Get Your First Bag Free Promo Code AtlasCoffeeDay20

'It began when I peeled a banana and thought it might be interesting to carve a face into the fruit," Yamada told the Daily Mail earlier this year. "The first one was the face of someone with a smile. I was surprised by how many people liked it so then I just started making more."

Yamada decides what he is going to sculpt, either from ideas suggested from others or his own ideas. The goal, said Yamada, is to creation something that people cannot believe that they are seeing. That's a goal not relegated only to banana art, but held, no doubt, by many artists working in a variety of mediums.


Though, how many artists eat their work when they're finished?

To check out more of Yamada's art, visit his Pixiv page.

To view the full images, click the lower right corner.

Culture Smash is a daily dose of things topical, interesting and sometimes even awesome—game related and beyond.


(Top photo: Photographer | Outlet)

You can contact Brian Ashcraft, the author of this post, at bashcraft@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.










Advertisement