Woodworking is a trade that might not have a big place in our modern lives. Artwork like this has to be done by hand, slowly and over hundreds of hours. So nowadays, it doesn’t make much sense to have a winged dragon topping your staircase or a nature relief carved into your front door.

Meet Mori Kono, the Japanese woodworker who’s striving to bring all of this back. Kono now lives in Canada, where he and his team produce beautiful wooden sculptures and reliefs from native trees like cherry, fir, walnut, and more.

Kono works largely with power tools, but he and his team do the detail work, such as fur, scales, and eyes, with a hand chisel and other tools. The result is absolutely breathtaking.

“Our main mission is to bring out, or back, the wondrousness of nature to this busy modern world,” reads Kono’s website for his business, MK Carving and Sculpting. “All living things in this world exist and accept every rule of mother nature…living in balance. If our completed works of art are able to contribute to society – to have a deeper feeling and respect towards nature and the wild more often, then that is our greatest dream!”