Japanese Artist’s Paper Cutouts Create a Bottle-sized Fantasy World

By Kenji Iwaasa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

11:00 JST, October 24, 2025

One artist is taking kirie paper cutouts to the next level with her skill at creating magical worlds in bottles. Her highly elaborate and three-dimensional paper cutouts appear to float midair inside glass bottles, as if captured by magic.

You’ll likely lose track of time, mesmerized by the art.

There are paper cutouts of butterflies hovering around flowers, a little bird flying between cherry blossoms and a girl on a water lily flower.

Various kinds of glass bottles for wine and whiskey house these fantastic scenes.

Paper cutout artist Hase Kamiya produces the pieces, called “kirie bottle art.” “Through stereoscopic layouts, the paper cutouts come to life,” she said.

Creating paper cutouts already takes much skill, and it is an extremely delicate task to place them inside bottles.

The folded paper cutouts are put into bottles with tweezers and then carefully unfolded with knitting needles inserted into the bottles, making sure that the paper does not tear.

The art looks like it is floating inside the bottles as some parts of the paper cutouts are fixed to the inner surface with adhesives.

“I decide on three points or so that can support the art’s weight to make it stable,” she said.

Kamiya began producing these types of artworks around 2011. At that time, she worked at an anime production company, and her colleague gave her chocolates inside a bottle as a souvenir from Mexico.

She felt like the bottle was unique since it was sealed with a stopper on the bottom, leading her to wonder if she could do something interesting with it.

Kamiya inserted a butterfly-shaped paper cutout in the bottle, and others around her appreciated the artwork.

She began to produce the pieces in earnest around 2014 and has made more than 200 items. Her works are also for sale.

Simply making the cutouts appear to float is not the end of her artistic process.

Kamiya devised a lighting method using small LED lights that are attached to the mouths of the bottles.

When lit up somewhere dark, the shadows of the paper cutouts are cast outside the glass, allowing viewers to enjoy a different side of the art.

For example, one of her works, made using a spherical vase, casts shadows of butterflies, whose joyful dance seems to extend beyond the glass surface.

“When the light inside the bottle is turned on, my works come to life and startle the viewer. I want everyone to enjoy such feelings of surprise,” she said.

Clocks, furin wind chimes

Kamiya also creates clocks and furin wind chimes that are decorated with paper cutouts.

One of her clocks features a cute cat. Paper cutout acorns are placed on a rotating disk that serves as the second hand.

It’s relaxing to watch as the clock face depicts a scene as if the cat keeps watching acorns falling from a tree.

Another work is a wind chime with a cutout featuring hydrangeas, or one with a goldfish, attached to the thin rod that strikes the wind chime.

Seeing the delicate cutouts sway leaves viewers feeling refreshingly cool.

Hase Kamiya

Kamiya was born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1969. Upon graduating from Kyoto City University of Arts, she worked as a greeting card designer as well as an animator. She began producing kirie bottle art in earnest around 2014.