Welcome to the realm of dust particles and hair strands. Tinyland! It's also the scale at which some truly minuscule—and impressive—sculptures have dazzled Japan, a country with a long tradition of making things small.
For several years now, these carved figures have appeared on Japanese bulletin boards. The figures are called "100 Yen Coin Person" ("hyaku en dama no hito" or 百円玉の人). To give you an idea of scale, 100 yen coins are slightly smaller than a quarter.
Every once in a while the latest 100 yen carving appears online—and those all seem to be uploaded and done by the same anonymous (and extremely talented) artist, with the same background and photo editing style.
Kotaku has covered these millimeter figures before, when a Kyubey sculpture appeared online last year.The most recent sculpture, Girls und Panzer, popped up on Friday.
Other artists have joined in, too, making their own figures that are smaller than 100 yen coins, but no one seems to have surpassed this anonymous artist.
In Japan, there is a long tradition of making small sculptures like this. In the 17th century, "netsuke" (根付) were, in short, small, intricate carved ornaments that were used to to hold up pouches on kimono belts. In an indirect way, the 100 Yen Coin Person figures are a modern continuation of this tiny-sized craftsmanship.
100円玉の人 [Private Museum]
ホビコン05 神戸 後書とかそんな感じの [BeboxOS]
1/72の三浦あずさを作りました [ふたば☆ちゃんねる]
1/72の宮藤芳佳を作りました [ふたば☆ちゃんねる]
小型化は日本人にお任せ！らき☆すたに登場する柊つかさの手作りフィギュアが凄い [Digimaga]
「100円玉の人」 [Twipple]
「ガルパン 1/72 西住みほ＋ボコ」今回もスゲエ！ [HobbyLog]
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