You want to send flowers — but something that lasts a little longer. When that thought arrives, preserved flowers are worth considering. AME, the art object brand created by Kita-Kamakura floral artist Norihiko Kamei, condenses natural landscapes into objects small enough to hold in both hands. With proper care, the colors hold for approximately one year — staying in the recipient's home long after a fresh bouquet would be gone.
AME — A Natural Landscape in the Palm of Your Hand.
Norihiko Kamei came to flowers through the tea ceremony and wagashi confections — objects made with precision, shaped by season, and gone in moments. That tension between beauty and impermanence became the foundation of his artistic thinking.
After completing his graduate studies at Tokyo Zokei University and earning a teaching certification in the Sogetsu school of ikebana, Kamei began treating flowers not as decoration but as composition. The result was HANAYAMA — dense, multicolored arrangements of small flowers that read as a single living landscape. Following an exhibition in Amsterdam in 2019, he moved to preserved flowers as the only way to share the work across borders and let it last. This became AME — named for the Japanese word for rain. In July 2020, he opened his atelier in Kita-Kamakura, where every piece is still made by hand, one at a time.
With proper care — away from direct sunlight, heat, and humidity — the colors in each piece last for approximately one year (moss-based works: 2–5 years).
AME — 6 Preserved Flower Art Pieces
All works below are made by Norihiko Kamei, available through By Emotion International, and ship worldwide.
Preserved Flower Art Piece "Tamatebako (Treasure Box)"
A miniature flower garden enclosed in a jet-black iron vessel with a matte beeswax finish. Lift the lid — feeling the weight of the iron — and a vivid landscape appears inside. The act of opening is part of the work itself.
Each piece is made to order. At checkout, you may specify a preferred color or scene — for example, "a mountain in late autumn with red and yellow leaves" — and Kamei will interpret it. What arrives will be singular, and will differ from the photographs. That is the nature of this gift.
Preserved Flower Art Piece "Hanakogo"
Based on the kōgō — the small lidded ceramic used in Japanese tea ceremony to hold incense — this work opens to reveal a miniature preserved flower landscape inside. The ceramic takes an organic form somewhere between a river stone and a forest seed, and sits comfortably in the palm.
Six landscapes, six fragrances — each scent blended by a perfumer using Japanese botanicals to match the scene within: yuzu, hinoki, and rose in "Color Wind"; shiso, plumeria, and linden in "Blush Wind"; shell ginger, kaffir lime leaf, and jasmine in "Lush Wind," among others. The fragrance arrives before you even lift the lid. The entire experience can be given as a gift, delivered in a paulownia box, ready to present as it arrives.
Preserved Flower Art Piece "Zen"
Open the lid of the black ceramic vessel and moss unfolds in organic curves across the interior. The object is small, but its effect on a room is disproportionate to its size. You stop. You look.
The set includes 25 handcrafted incense sticks made from Yoshino cypress and an incense holder. The fragrance, named "Zenku" (zen air), was designed to evoke the sensation of looking out from a temple hall into a silent garden. When smoke and moss share the same frame, something in the room shifts. The moss holds for approximately 3–5 years — among the longest-lasting works in the AME collection.
Preserved Flower Art Piece "Hanayama preserved flower"
HANAYAMA — "flower mountain" — is the series at the origin of AME. Dense arrangements of small preserved flowers in many colors, built up to read as a single living landscape: meadow, hillside, garden. First exhibited in Amsterdam in 2019, this work became the starting point from which the entire brand grew. A gift for someone who will understand exactly what they are looking at.
Preserved Flower Art Piece "Keshikifu"
Volcanic pumice stone from Sakurajima, Kagoshima, planted one by one with dried flowers and preserved botanicals. The landscape built across the stone's porous surface is a hillside, a meadow, a terrain without a name — compressed into something that fits in two hands.
Each stone comes with a 5ml essential oil blend, composed by a perfumer using Japanese botanical ingredients. A single drop on the stone is enough; the fragrance rises slowly, as if a breeze were moving through the scene in front of you. Stone shape, color, and flower placement vary by piece — what arrives will differ from the photographs. That is not a flaw. It is how the work is made.
Preserved Flower Art Piece "Tokiyama Ukiishi"
A volcanic stone from Kagoshima, dressed by hand with preserved moss and leaves — dense in places, open in others, like the floor of a forest. Tucked inside the moss is a small glass bud vase. You might not notice it at first. That is part of the design.
The moss landscape is complete on its own. But the vase is an invitation — to stop on a walk and pick something small: a sprig, a stem, a single bloom from whatever is growing nearby. Place it into the stone and the scene shifts. A few days later, replace it with something else. The stone stays; the flowers pass through it like seasons. The moss holds for approximately 2–3 years — a gift that stays with someone for a long time.
A gift that lasts as long as the feeling behind it.
Fresh flowers fulfill their role in just a few days, but AME's works stay on in the recipient's daily life for quite some time, carrying your feelings to them slowly over the course of a year. Why not choose one as a gift that will remain in the memory of someone dear to you?
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All products ship worldwide, with no shipping fees.
Most orders are shipped from Japan within 1–2 weeks of your order being placed. After shipment, please allow approximately 7 to 30 days for delivery, depending on your location and local customs processing times.
If you have any concerns about how an item will be handled, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@sogoo.co.jp before placing your order.