Masayo Fukuda first realized the potential of paper art when she was in high school. “When giving a birthday card to my friend, I felt that it was unsatisfactory to send just a square card,” shared the artist in an interview with X-Ray Magazine. “So, I cut the paper into a heart shape. After that, when giving greeting cards to family members and friends, I discovered that it was not so easy to cut their cards and present them with motifs such as flower bouquets and girls’ profiles.”
Over the next 30 years, she has mastered her craft, and now she creates delicate paper art that is finely cut with such detail, it’s hard to imagine it’s entirely made by hand. The Japanese art of papercutting, known as Kirie, is created by finely cutting a single sheet of paper at a time.
Fukuda’s paper art revolves around the natural world, focused mainly on marine life. “I have liked creepy and mysterious creatures as well as marine life from an early age,” she explained. “Among them, I especially liked deep-sea fish and jellyfish, and made them motifs in my work.”
Now, with more than 40 thousand followers on Instagram, and exhibitions in galleries around Japan and elsewhere, she has fully outgrown her humble beginnings.
Follow her on Instagram for more paper magic.
