Launch price: $32 until November 14 (regular price $39). Free v1.x updates.

Koshizu Trees

Japanese trees for Blender, shaped the way they grow in Japan.

WHY I MADE THIS

I'm Nao, a Blender artist living in Japan. For a long time, I've felt a quiet unease looking at "Japanese-style" scenes online. The maples are too dense, the cherry trees look like props, and something is always slightly off.

What I wanted was a garden that feels natural even to Japanese eyes. I started building one around a traditional sukiya-style house, and soon found that the trees were the hardest part. No tree generator I could find was made for Japanese species and the way they're shaped in Japanese gardens. So I built one in Geometry Nodes, photographing and observing real trees along the way. That became Koshizu Trees.

WHO IT'S FOR

- Environment artists building Japanese gardens, temples, streets or countryside

- Architectural visualization of Japanese houses and gardens

- Game and film artists who need Japanese trees that hold up to a closer look

- Anyone who has searched for a "Japanese maple" asset and found it didn't look like the real thing

HOW IT WORKS

Pick a species from the browser in the side panel, and the tree appears in your scene. Drag the gizmo at its tip to set the height, lean and direction, then adjust the shape with a few sliders or click Randomize for a different variation. When the tree is finished, you can keep it as a preset or convert it to a regular mesh.

INCLUDED SPECIES (5 species, 7 presets)

- Kusunoki - Camphor Tree

- Momiji - Japanese Maple (single trunk and multi-stemmed)

- Aodamo - Japanese Ash (single trunk and multi-stemmed)

- Manryo - Ardisia Crenata

- Sakura - Cherry Blossoms (in bloom)

Five more Japanese species are planned as a free update in early 2027.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

- Choose by eye: pick a species from thumbnails in the side panel. A human silhouette shows the scale of each tree.

- Shape by hand: drag the gizmo at the tip to set height, lean and direction, instead of guessing numbers.

- Adjust the character: a few sliders for trunk, branches, crown and leaves, plus advanced settings when you need them.

- Control the details: set how branches spread and how twigs and leaves face.

- Never repeat yourself: Randomize gives each tree its own shape, so a row of maples never looks copied.

- Keep what you like: save your trees as presets, and export or import them.

- Work at garden scale: scatter trees across a surface and edit several at once.

- Finish cleanly: Apply as Static turns a tree into a regular mesh.

REQUIREMENTS

- Blender 4.5 or later (tested on 4.5 and 5.1)

- Install: Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install from Disk, then select the .zip file. The panel appears in the 3D Viewport sidebar under "Koshizu Trees."

WHAT'S INCLUDED / NOT INCLUDED

The download contains the add-on, the Geometry Nodes setup, materials and the seven species presets.

Product images show trees made with Koshizu Trees. The sukiya-style house, stones, lantern, fence, moss, ground cover, grass and water are scene assets and are not included.

WHERE IT STANDS, AND WHERE IT'S GOING

This is version 1.0, and there may still be things that aren't where I want them to be. One I already know of: branches are built from separate curves, so they meet at fork points rather than merging into one continuous mesh. At wide fork angles and in close-up views, the joins can be visible.

I'll keep refining Koshizu Trees through future updates, and feedback from the people using it will help decide what comes first. Updates for v1.x are free for all owners. Koshizu Trees is the first step of a long-term project: tools for building Japanese landscapes that feel true to the place.

Questions and support: https://www.koshizuspace.com/about/

LICENSE

The Python code is released under the GNU GPL v3.0 or later. The bundled assets (node groups, materials, leaf, flower and bark data, presets and thumbnails) are covered by the Koshizu Space Asset License (royalty-free): you can use trees made with Koshizu Trees in personal and commercial work, but you may not redistribute or resell the assets or the trees as standalone models. Full terms are included in the download.

Nao, Koshizu Space, Japan