Nostalgia of Warmth: Exhibition of Paper Cutouts Depicting the Showa Era (Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture)

2024.3.15

Joetsu CityPaper-cut

An exhibition of paper cutouts depicting everyday scenes from the 1950s and 1960s is being held at the Gochi Rekishi no Sato Kaikan in Kunifu 1-chome, Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture.

Bathing in a tarai. The kettle on the brazier. Changing diapers and my father’s clobber. 

The artist is Hideo Nishiyama, 76, who lives in Ishibashi 2-chome, Joetsu City. He has been creating works using motifs of local towns and people in his hometown of Naoetsu and holding exhibitions. Among his works, one that has been particularly well received is a reproduction of a scene from the Showa period as he saw it.

Since then, he has traced the Showa-era landscape through his own memories and photographs, and has created about 500 works of art so far. The 42 works on display in this exhibition are mostly new.

The works are made by pasting colored and patterned Japanese paper on the back of black paper with designs cut out of it. According to Nishiyama, the soft colors of the Japanese paper express warmth.

Mr. Nishiyama said, “You can only understand this view if you have experienced it. It has all disappeared. I hope that older people who grew up in those days will remember and have conversations with them.

Hideo Nishiyama’s paper cutout exhibition, “Memories that almost disappeared come back to life,” will be held at the Gochi Rekishi no Sato Kaikan across from the Iota Shrine until the 31st of this month.