Hari-e

Takidaira (his family name) was a distinguished artist in the fields of woodblock print and papercut art, becoming well known after his series of distinctive paper cuts (kiri-e) in the Asahi newspaper during the 1970s. Born in 1921, he died in 2009 at the age of 88.

Born in 1922 in Tokyo, Yamashita had a troubled childhood: - after a bullying incident at school involving a knife, he was classified as mentally handicapped, and placed in an institution. His genius for creating harie (pasted paper pictures) was soon realised, though, and eventually he featured in many exhibitions across Japan. He remained an eccentric: from 1940 to 1954 he roamed the country wearing only an undershirt (it is said), earning himself the moniker of "The naked artist wanderer". Although he travelled widely seeking material, including an extended tour of Europe in 1961, it seems he did not work in the field, but would return to his studio and create images entirely from memory. He died in 1971 at the early age of 49.

His story has been dramatised a number of times, in the 1956 film known as "The naked general" and later television series.

Born in 1924, Fujishiro has had a long and productive career as an illustrator - producing many children's books, and creating his own brand of fantasy along the way. From an early involvement with shadow puppetry, he developed his own unique style: he calls these kage-e (literally "shadow pictures"), but his is a backlit world not of black and white (or grey), but of wonderful translucent colours, apparently made mostly from tissue paper.

As of January 2020, he is still active in his nineties, and his work has appeared all over the world.