Japanese artist Akira Nagaya creates insanely intricate paper cuttings called kirie that look like delicate pencil drawings or wire sculptures.
Nagaya discovered his talent in his early 20s when he was learning sasabaran – a technique for cutting food decorations from bamboo leaves at sushi shops. When he practiced on his own using paper and a utility knife, he realized that he was good at it and that he enjoyed it. Only later in his life, though, did he start to look at his paper cuttings as art and display them to the public.
