For Ryuji Kazamatsuri, born in the port city of Yokohama and raised in the old business district of Tokyo, matsuri(street festivals) are as he himself says, "not a mere bit of nostalgia, but my life itself." To express the excitement of the lively matsuri scenes, Kazamatsuri has chosen the unusual art form known as kirie(cut picture) and over the years has developed original kirie techniques which enable him to produce the most intricate paper cuttings with the most extraordinary attention to detail. Facial expressions, colorful crest on the happi coats, intricate details of the elaborately decorated mikoshi(portable shrine), the hundreds of threads in a decorative tassel, none of these details are too complicated or delicate for the skillful hands of this talented craftsman.

At a first glance, one could mistake these strong, colorful scenes for woodblock prints, but on drawing closer, one realizes that every detail is cut in paper with utmost precision. The artist first makes an ink drawing in white paper. Under the finished drawing he places a sheet of black paper and then, using a cutter, cuts away the paper, leaving only the original drawn line.

Unlike the other kirie artists who do not add color to therie work, Kazamaturi completes his cutting by putting color paper underneath the stenciled work.

Cut paper techniques exist in many traditionals all over the world: Mexico, Denmark, Switzerland, and China to mention but a few. In Japan it originated as street entertainment and was also done in theaters when artist would cut out subjects on request from the audience gathered around them. The cutting of paper to make stencils for fabric dyeing is also a very old tradition in Japan. Kirie developed in Japan as a distinctive art form in the post-war years and become very popular in the 1970s when cutters became a current tool easily found in every stationary shop.

For may years now, Ryuji Kazamatsuri has devoted his time and talent to capturing the traditions of Japan using kirie.. Matsuri, sumo, kabuki, and street scenes are his favorite themes, but he has also done a series on the pilgrimage to the 88 temples of Shikoku, and other Buddhist themes. He presented his cutting of Hasedera Temple to the Pope in 1992 and the same work is also part of the permanent collection of the Guimet Museum of Asian in Paris.