Below is a comment from Hasegawa Hisae

When I was young I studied western oil painting and that experience has strongly influenced the way I think about visual representation. Later I began exploring Japanese washi, handmade paper, as a medium for expression, often tearing it or cutting it into patterns and creating images with these fragments.

Technically, my current work is based on a unique Japanese tradition of paper making and decoration known as ryoshi, which I have studied for more than ten years. These are handmade papers for writing poetry that developed during the Heian period a thousand years ago. This exquisite paper incorporated various decorative techniques, such as gold and silver leaf, Japanese colored pigment, natural dyes and a technique known as kira, sprinkled powdered mica, which gives a sheen and highlights to the paper.

Five years ago my work with paper as an artistic medium began to change. The distinctive influences of ryoshi had submerged, and something very new and fresh had emerged. Now I am working on a mixture of materials and techniques which I call Yuragi. While this means ‘leaf river’ and ‘stream;’ to me they have the same meaning when applied to my current work. Yuragi suggest gentle movement, such as something that swings back and forth or undulates ever so slightly in the wind. But it also suggests subtle momentary changes, like flickering, in waves of water, in light and shadow.

Gin?silver?refers to the silver leaf that I use instead of colored pigment.

This process begins when I dye a sheer gauze textile with indigo or sumi ink. Then I apply the silver leaf to the surface and remove it, repeating this several times until I have achieved the irregular pattern I desire. Sometime the silver and gold patterns are heavy, almost incrusted; at others they are sparse with prominent negative space.

My work explores the accidental irregularities of the patterns that occur through the multiple applications and removal of the silver leaf. In other words, through this accidental patterning I try to express the subtle changes that continually occur around us in both movement and in light.

I have employed this technique in many forms, including hanging scrolls, folding screens, objects, and to modern forms such as panels, some of which have a flat surface, while others have sculptural surfaces.

Hasegawa Hisae, Tokyo 2006