I am sure we have all seen them before,
known in Japan as kami-fusen (紙風船), they are a very colorful and playful part of Japanese traditional arts and
crafts, supposedly born in the 1890's as an affordable alternative to
rubber balloons and other toys, when the wives of fishermen made them for their
children, and became popular as toys, decoration, and even advertisement, easily
inflatable, children would blow the kami-fusen up and then bat them around as
long as possible to keep them afloat, a graduate of an Art University in Kyoto, is tapping into nostalgia to make some
beautiful animal-themed paper balloons,
Masuda
Yutaro's gallery consists of crafts made from traditional Japanese
paper, keeping in with the spirit of Kyoto, but his kami-fusen collection
features some charming animal-motif paper balloons, this classic goldfish design, a motif that decorates artwork
and clothing throughout Japanese history, comes in different colors and make
for a beautiful decorative piece,
adding in a little comical but adorable touch is a kami-fusen
modeled after a puffer fish, considered a Japanese delicacy, the fish is a
natural fit to the inflatable nature of kami-fusen,
Masuda's kami-fusen can be purchased at his Minne site, but sadly it only seems to ship domestically within Japan, photography by Yutaro, and no I am not on commission, I just thought they were neat.
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