Kiwamu, *Shetland Sheepdog*Ars Corporation/chokigallery提供
I visited an artist who creates dogs out of washi paper.
It was a quiet residential neighborhood in Kanagawa Prefecture. The house had been built only recently.
In the studio on the second floor, there were numerous works of art, washi paper, a DSLR camera, and several wristwatches.
It didn’t take long to see—he is the meticulous type.
Kiwamu, *Dachshund*Ars Corporation/chokigallery提供
“I’m a preschool teacher.”
That was his answer when I asked about his job.
It caught me off guard. Perhaps it’s not so unusual these days, but I had never spoken with a male preschool teacher before.
He used to work at an automobile factory in Aichi.
He had graduated from university, but without a clear idea of what he wanted to do. He chose the job simply because he had heard it paid well.
One day, a package arrived at the factory dormitory. It was from his mother back home.
Inside was a book.
There was a photograph of a man holding a guitar. The man, the caption said, was a nursery school teacher.
If he could play the guitar he loved while working, that wouldn’t be so bad.
That was what he thought.
He visited the preschool where the man in the photo worked—and before long, he had become a teacher there himself.
That’s the kind of person he was.
He says his creative work began when children at the kindergarten asked him to make animals out of paper.
On a whim, he posted a washi paper dog on Twitter.
It exploded—over 100,000 likes.
Requests poured in from people asking to buy his work.
But there was no way he could make everything freehand.
So he digitized the outlines of dogs, along with the delicate textures of their fur. He adjusts the data for each breed, then prints it onto washi paper.
He cuts, bends, and shapes the paper.
And little by little, the dogs begin to stand.
The dogs he creates
are gentle, unguarded expressions.
They resemble their maker,
just a little.
by Takeshi Kikkawa
Kiwamu, “Pomeranian (Orange), Pomeranian (Cream)”
Ars Corporation/chokigallery提供
Ars Corporation/chokigallery提供
Gallery
Red fox (Ezo red fox)
Ezo raccoon dog, Pomeranian (black)
Dachshund
Kiwamu @pkirigami
What kind of paper do you use?
I use printable Ise washi paper.
I tried many different kinds of washi, and this one worked best for me.
What tools do you rely on most?
I use the iD Choki scissors (Ars Corporation).（アルスコーポレーション）
You can customize the grip color, so I chose yellow and olive.
They cut cleanly all the way to the tip, which makes them perfect for detailed work.