Miyuki Sagamori

Miyuki Sagamori

Pink Leopard

Soft rice dough (similar to American corn syrup), food coloring, and icing

3-5"

1984-2011

Miyuki was born and raised in Tokyo Japan. When she was young, her grandfather was a renowned candy artist of Japan. Candy artists date back 250 years in the Edo era. Her grandfather taught her this art when she was a young girl.  Her grandfather was one of the best and most well known masters of this art. She first started becoming his apprentice in 1989 in Amezaiku, Japan. She moved to Italy when she finished her training and became an independent candy artist in 1994. There are only 15 people in the world who know how to do this art and Sagamori is the first known woman to be taught this candy art style. She now works at Epcot theme park of  Disney World making her edible candy art for her customers. Unfortunately, Disney stopped her from giving out her rice candy treats in 2010 because health inspectors said she couldn't give out contaminated food due to her not wearing gloves while sculpting her masterpieces.

Artist's statement:  Sagamori has a very rare talent that isn't seen very often. She uses small scissors and knives to cut and mold creatures out of rice dough. She became an independent artist after being taught by her grandfather. She is very serious about her works and always created them with a smile and even sings sometimes when she is creating them. Candy sculpting is her passion and her work shows it.

-Pink Leopard

This candy sculpture is one of the many creations she has made. It is a soft rice starch ball sculpted to look like a pink leopard painted with pink food coloring. The process of creating this takes barley over a minute to create. It starts out as a hot moldable rice ball and is pulled like taffy to make it flexible. It is then pulled and trimmed with small scissors to create the desired animal or flower the artist wants to create. Once the form has been finished it is painted with food coloring and icing. It is then placed in front of a small fan to harden the shape so the sculpture stays in place. These creations usually do not last for long because most people eat them so they weren't named anything. When they were named, they were not documented because they were always given to the chosen child to eat.

This artwork connects to our theme because it was made out of another type of edible materials. Why I chose it was it was such a rare talent to have and was sculpted so quickly with using a type of rice clay. It was another edible work of art whose creation was fascinating to watch and I felt like I just couldn't pass it up.