Hayashiya Niraku is a 51-year-old practitioner of kamikiri, a Japanese performance art that involves cutting silhouette images out of a plain piece of paper based on requests from the audience. Adding to the challenge, artists create their pieces without drawing an outline beforehand.
His performances, mainly at yose storytelling theaters and rakugo stages in Tokyo, are classified as iromono — or variety acts other than rakugo that include magic and juggling.
During a performance at a yose theater in Tokyo's Asakusa district, Niraku takes requests from the audience while he explains kamikiri and, accompanied by the sound of shamisen music, rhythmically uses scissors to complete pieces in a couple of minutes.