What kind of painting is Chigirie?

Take a look at the following Chigirie works.

Usually subjects of Chigirie include popular flowers and peaceful landscapes.

gladiolus

.cherry blossom

About Japanese Paper "Washi" for Chigirie

The paper-making was invented in ancient China; in the beginning, paper was

made of bamboo or straw with thin fibers.

After they introduced tha paper-making skills into Japan in the 6th century,

these materials were replaced by paper malberry with longer fiber.

What is the difference between Japanese paper 'Washi and ordinary paper

which is often called'Yohshi' meaning western paper in Japan?

The fibers used as material for the Japanese paper are much longer(2-15mm)

than those of the western paper(less than 2mm). In addition to this,

because of the characteristic process of manual paper making developped

in Japan, the Wshi paper can be made very thin and very strong and elastic

with fibers well mixed and combined.

So what kind of painting is Chigirie?

It is a kind of collage painted with Washi paper, you could say, but not

ordinary ones as you image by the word 'collage'.

Colored Washi paper is used to paint/make Chigirie as a substitute for paints

of watercol or or oil painting.

The Washi paper mainly used for this purpose is soft and absorbent paper

suited to be dyed to create both sharp and soft, hard and feathery patterns,

hues and colors. Often it happens that the delicate patterns, hues or

subtle colors of the dyed paper lead painters to unexpected ideas or images

to use in the painting .

What is the meaning of Chigirie?

The Japanese word 'chigirie' is the combination of two basic words 'chigiri'

and '-e'. Chigiri' is the noun form of the verb'chigiru' which menas

'to tear' and '-e' is an art work or picture painted through tearing of

Washi paper.

It should be said that because of this method of tearing paper, it brings

about characteristic appearance of softness and tenderness when this method

is used.

Of course cutting with knife or scissors is not prohibitted al all, especially

when your finger tips cannot tear pieces that are too thin or too small,

or even when you want pieces to be cut with sharp edge.

How to make/do Chigirie ?

If you'd like to know how to to do Chigirie,click the arrow below.