The journal
Notes from the nursery.
Essays on growing a bonsai game that takes bonsai seriously — written by the person growing it.
Grow a tree in a game for a year, and we’ll mail you a real one
Announcing the Yamadori Exchange: keep a bonsai alive in our iPhone game for 365 real days, and a living tree from our partner nursery ships to your door. Guaranteed, never gambled.
No. 003The first bonsai game that takes bonsai seriously
Real species with real Latin names, watering intervals borrowed from horticulture, wire that needs six real days to set, and cuts that backbud. How Yamadori compresses genuine bonsai practice into an iPhone game.
No. 002A solo developer, a friend’s nursery, and a promise
Yamadori is built by one person, in partnership with a real working bonsai nursery run by a close friend. The story of how a game and a nursery decided to grow together.
No. 001What is yamadori? The mountain practice our game is named for
Yamadori (山採り) means “collected from the mountains” — wild trees shaped by hardship, prized above all in bonsai. What the word means, and why we named a game after it.