1.
miniature garden; tray garden
A small landscape arranged inside a shallow box or tray, using sand, moss, small plants, and miniature figures to create a scene.
2.
sandbox; open-world (game genre)
A genre of video game that gives the player a contained world to freely explore and build in.
Literally 'box garden.' Originally refers to a traditional Japanese craft of creating miniature landscapes in shallow boxes, dating back to the Edo period. The tradition uses sand, moss, pebbles, and tiny figures to represent natural scenes. In modern usage, the word has been adopted by the gaming community to describe sandbox or open-world games where players build and manage a contained world.
Common collocations
- 箱庭を作る: to make a miniature garden
- 箱庭ゲーム: sandbox game
- 箱庭療法: sandplay therapy (a form of psychotherapy)
- 箱庭的な: miniature; sandbox-like
Cultural note
箱庭療法 (sandplay therapy) is used in clinical psychology, where patients create scenes in a sandbox to express unconscious feelings. This therapeutic technique was developed in Europe but became widely practiced in Japan.