Nisei Festival Whets Appetite for Tradition

No sculpture is more tasteful. Or more in danger of disappearing forever from the face of the earth.

Which is why Shan Ichiyanagi is sticking with the ancient Japanese art of amezaiku--creating fanciful statues of graceful birds, menacing samurai warriors and prancing horses out of gooey corn syrup.

The Mar Vista resident is one of only two artists in the United States who can turn cooked syrup into sculpture. Experts say that even in Japan, only a handful of people still practice the thousand-year-old art form.

“It’s the one piece of sculpture that, if it breaks, you know what to do with it,” said Ichiyanagi, 45. “You eat it.”

Those with an appetite for that sort of tradition are expected to arrive early for amezaiku demonstrations between noon and 5 p.m. today at the Japanese Village Plaza in downtown Los Angeles as part of the Nisei Week Japanese Festival.

The festival, which includes a tofu food fair, various art and cultural exhibits, a dance and a Sunday afternoon parade, runs through Aug. 17 in the Little Tokyo area.

Organizers say the 57th annual Nisei festival is designed to help preserve Japanese culture brought here by turn-of-the-century immigrants and nourished since then by their families.

They say amezaiku, which translates as “sweet candy craft,” is only one of many endangered traditions. It has been traced to medieval days, when artisans blended sugar and showmanship by dancing and gesturing grandly as they formed heated syrup into figures. Then they sold the candy to the gathered crowd.

Ichiyanagi’s delicate cranes, dolphins and other figures seem too elegant to eat. And too expensive: He sells them for about $50 each--or gives them away to guests at parties where he is hired to perform.

He learned the craft after watching amezaiku artists in Hokkaido, Japan, where he grew up. “I’d watch the old candy artist’s hands. They were like magic,” Ichiyanagi said Friday. “I touched the figure when it was finished. It was still very hot. When it cooled, it was very tasty too.”

Ichiyanagi decided to become a candy artist after he immigrated to the U.S. and in 1971 enrolled in an English class at Reseda Adult School. There, he met Masaji Terasawa, America’s other amezaiku artist. Ichiyanagi returned to Japan to learn the craft from a pair of elderly men.

He sold his first sculptures at swap meets. But Ichiyanagi soon found himself in demand at private and corporate parties. These days, he is booked at events all over the country.

“Last week, I was in Nashville for an MTV event, making Beavis and Butt-head figures,” he said. “We don’t have that tradition in Japan.”

On Sunday, Ichiyanagi will take his portable 200-degree syrup oven--with containers for six colors of goopy cooked syrup--to New York where he will create sculpture for guests of a Manhattan man celebrating his 40th birthday.

Ichiyanagi must work fast when he is sculpting, because the syrup starts to harden after about two minutes in the air.

He starts by dipping a chopstick into the container to lift out a gob of syrup. Quickly flipping his wrist, he makes the syrup flow into the shape of the figure he is creating. He uses a pair of Japanese sewing scissors to pinch and form such details as bird wings or a horse’s flowing mane.

He waves a delicate paper fan to quickly cool the figure and freeze it into its shape when he is finished. The process takes about three minutes. After the sculpture has cooled and sat for about a day, it can be sprayed with shellac. That seals the art and preserves it.

Nisei Week organizers say they wish there was a way to preserve other Japanese culture so easily.

“A lot of the arts are really dying out,” said banker Alan Furuta, this year’s festival chairman.

Kats Kunitsugu, executive secretary of the Japan American Cultural & Community Center, agreed.

“Cultural survival, as we call it, is a big concern. Second-generation teachers who trained in Japan are retiring. There aren’t that many third-generation students to take their place,” she said.