You can get a glimpse of the beauty of kiri-e (cut-paper pictures) created by members of the Zenkoku Kiri-e Dokokai (National Association of Kiri-e) at an exhibition running till Dec. 8 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space in Ikebukuro.
Students learning how to make kiri-e have to follow a painstaking sequence.
First, they draw a rough sketch of the subject. This is then traced onto art paper and cut out. The process is repeated over and over to improve students' techniques, and only after much practice are they finally capable of creating their own original pieces.