Masayo Fukuda first utilized the ancient Japanese art of papercutting when she was just a high school student. “When giving a birthday card to my friend, I felt that it was unsatisfactory to send just a square card,” she explained in an interview with X-Ray Magazine. “So, I cut the paper into a heart shape.”
After that, it was greeting cards to family members and friends, and soon Fukuda found herself completely hooked. “When giving greeting cards to family members and friends, I discovered that it was not so easy to cut their cards and present them with motifs such as flower bouquets and girls’ profiles,” she said. But she tried and tried again – for the last 30 years to be exact.
Now, her delicate creations focus mainly on animals, specifically marine life and underwater creatures. “I have liked creepy and mysterious creatures as well as marine life from an early age,” she admits. “Among them, I especially liked deep-sea fish and jellyfish, and made them motifs in my work.”
Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries around Japan and elsewhere. But she has also amassed more than 70k followers on Instagram, which is no small feat by any measure. Here are some of her mind-boggling creations:
