The journal
Notes from the nursery.
Essays on growing a bonsai game that takes bonsai seriously — written by the people growing it.
No. 003
The 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 brother, a sister, and the tree that lived
Yamadori is made by Chase and Morgan Tantalo, a brother and sister who begged for a bonsai each as kids. Hers died within weeks. His lived. The story of how one surviving tree became a game where no tree can die.
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.