All About Japan

Astonishingly Beautiful Hand-Cut Paper Art

Handicrafts Art Design

While origami is well known outside of Japan, far fewer will have heard of Japan’s other paper-based art form, kirie (切り絵), which literally means “cut picture.” All you need is a piece of paper, a cutter knife, some intuition and mad cutting skills, and you too can make jaw-dropping beauty.

Now another artist who goes by @mi_kocoa on Twitter entered the spotlight when she shared her most recent work and astounded all who saw it. While her works in the past have featured lovely designs of animals and flowers, this one utilizes text as the main focus—specifically, an excerpt from the classic children’s novel Night on the Galactic Railroad (Ginga Tetsudo no Yoru) by Kenji Miyazaka.

This was cut entirely by hand from a single sheet of origami paper, using only a cutter knife. To keep the whole thing together, each kanji and hiragana character is attached to the next with hair-fine lines. Some characters have even been hollowed out in the center for emphasis. Trying to imagine the level of patience and hand-control needed to cut such fine detail is mind boggling.

The final product looks so delicate, like simply breathing on it would cause it to tear.

Her other works are just as finely detailed and equally lovely to look at.

We’re sure this won’t be the last we see of @mi_kocoa, and we can’t wait to see what her magical hands create next! Be sure to follow her so you can keep up with her art as well.

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