Haikei Chieko-sama (“Dear Chieko”): this is how the imaginary letter that the artist Sawako Tanizawa might write to her elder colleague would begin – for she would have so much to tell her. This is the title of a series of paper cut-outs, reinterpretations of motifs borrowed from the works of Chieko Takamura: a blazing sun, a pomegranate one imagines forgotten on the corner of a table, a solitary crab with a cut-out silhouette. The Kyoto-based artist was deeply influenced by her discovery of Chieko Takamura’s paper-cut still lifes – the minimalist power of the composition, the confident hand in the combination of colours. In this series, she pays tribute to the Japanese artist, who died in 1938, by reproducing the original motif. But by scattering it with words, cutting out a ‘No’ or adding a tiny face with an open mouth at its centre, she imbues it with meaning. In both the past and the present, daring to say ‘no’ is a challenge in Japanese society, according to Tanizawa, who sees this as a legacy of Confucianism. But it is also the difficult situation of Chieko—whose paper-cut works created between 1931 and 1938 during her period of schizophrenia have never been recognised for their true worth to this day—that the artist wishes to highlight. Was she, too, able to say no? To the dominant figure of her husband, the sculptor and poet Kôtarô Takamura, as well as to the social conventions of her time?
Dear Chieko, Crab, 2022, acryl on paper, 96 x 97 x 5 cm (on the right: Chieko Takamura, no date)
Dear Chieko, Sun, 2022, acryl on paper, 96 x 97 x 5 cm (on the right: Chieko Takamura, no date)
For Sawako Tanizawa, the very use of the paper-cutting technique—known as kirigami in Japanese—is a manifesto, a protest: ‘Paper cutting is a rich art form that requires neither special skills nor space, and is characterised as much by its fragility as by its flexibility,’ writes the artist. A simple, accessible art form, a ‘poor’ art in the truest sense of the word.
Alongside Chieko, other female artists serve as a source of inspiration for Sawako Tanizawa. The Englishwoman Mary Delany (1700–1788), creator of an extraordinary paper-cut herbarium comprising over 900 plates, which she began after becoming a widow at the age of 72, as well as the Chinese artist Ku Shulan (1920–2003) , the ‘priestess of paper cutting’ who reinvented the traditional art of jianzhi, and last but not least Ayako Miyawaki (1905–1995), a textile artist from Nagoya who created works from cut-out fabric, are all part of the pantheon of artists with whom Sawako Tanizawa engages in dialogue. In these monochrome cut-outs, in which she reappropriates the language of her predecessors, the artist interweaves these influences to create unique and original works with multiple voices.
Beyond Tanizawa’s unhidden feminist commitment, her approach is a genuine artistic plea: to give a voice and a presence to artists overlooked by posterity, to bring back into the spotlight an art form disparaged for its modesty, and to restore the prestige of motifs whose simplicity may have been mocked: flowers, scenes from everyday life, still lifes of fruit and vegetables.
Last exhibitions:
Osaka, The National Museum of Art/Kumamoto, Contemporary Art Museum 2026
Fukuoka, Eureka, 2026
Tokyo, Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Espace 1894 – until 21 juin 2026 (https://www.marunouchi.com/en/pickup/event/9604/)
References:
About Mary Delany, see the British Museum article: https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/late-bloomer-exquisite-craft-mary-delany
About Ku Shulan (1920-2003), see https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/art-architecture/ku-shulan-goddess-of-paper-cut.html
About Ayako Miyawaki, see the text published on this blog in 2025.
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