Have you ever heard of amezaiku?
By Lynn
@owlandbutterfly (304)
United States
February 26, 2017 3:32pm CST
It's an ancient art that made its way into Japan from China, and today I have the privilege of sitting in the audience as Shan "The Candy Man" Ichiyanagi molds beautiful animal sculptures from a mixture of corn syrup and sugar. It's one of my favorite parts of the Arizona Matsuri festival, and this year both of our kids are old enough to really enjoy watching the process.
He just finished making a unicorn, and now he's working on a turtle. It's amazing to watch how quickly he can turn a blob of hot candy into a work of art.
One of the assistants here today mentioned that he's taken his nephew as an apprentice since the last time we saw him perform. That's such great news, because there are very, very few people left in the world that practice this art.
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6 responses
@ElusiveButterfly (45939)
• United States
26 Feb 17
I found a youtube video of it:
Amezaiku Candy Sculpture Japan Video Topics (english) http://japan-video-topics-english.blogspot.com/
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@owlandbutterfly (304)
• United States
27 Feb 17
This is the best photo of the process I took this year. My camera's battery just didn't hold out through the whole performance, unfortunately.
This was the unicorn that I mentioned in the original post. I'll have to see if I can find some of the pictures I took a few years ago of him making a dragon.
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@MALUSE (69390)
• Germany
27 Feb 17
@ElusiveButterfly I watched the video. Amazing!!
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@much2say (53941)
• Los Angeles, California
28 Feb 17
We saw him last month for Oshogatsu (New Year) Family Festival they had at our Japanese American Museum! I know in previous years they have had these candy demonstrations, but I can't really remember if he is the one coming each year. Isn't it amazing 
? It kinda reminds me of glass blowers. Oh how lucky of that nephew to become an apprentice . . . that would be an amazing experience!
? It kinda reminds me of glass blowers. Oh how lucky of that nephew to become an apprentice . . . that would be an amazing experience!1 person likes this
@owlandbutterfly (304)
• United States
1 Mar 17
You're right, it is kind of like glass blowing! And that reminds me of way back when the "old" mall was still here in my area, and they had a glassblower set up in the middle of the entryway. I always wanted to have a custom piece made, but it never happened.
I hear there are some great glassblowers in our area... maybe I'll have to get out there and go to some of their studios!
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@much2say (53941)
• Los Angeles, California
1 Mar 17
@owlandbutterfly That's so cool . . . I don't even know where any glass blowers are out here. And hey, that could be the next best thing to sculpting Japanese candy!
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@ElusiveButterfly (45939)
• United States
26 Feb 17
Must be fascinating to watch him do his craft. They truly are artists using sugar as their medium.
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@owlandbutterfly (304)
• United States
27 Feb 17
It really is. Ichiyanagi-san began doing it in the 1970's, and he's finally become a master and taken an apprentice.
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@Fishmomma (11377)
• United States
27 Feb 17
This is really cool. I'm glad he is teaching his nephew, as don't want to see this art go away.
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@sishy7 (27169)
• Australia
28 Feb 17
Oh, I think I've heard of this before but never knew the name of the art, the master, nor have I seen it done in person... Sounds very interesting and entertaining... I'd probably feel bad if I have to eat those art candy after they're so intricately sculptured.
Let me call SmilePie @much2say on this one... She has been on so many different cultural events perhaps she heard of this art - and if not I'm pretty sure she'd be interested to read about this... 
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