Hasta La Ideas

Munch on these

As someone whose sexually ambiguous first name has led to me being mistaken for a woman online, I feel compelled to set the record straight with this story now making the blog rounds: Takayo Kiyota, the creator of the artistic makizushi (cooked rice, vegetables and/or seafood rolled into a seaweed wrap) you see here, is being incorrectly described by other sites as a male sushi chef. In fact she is a female illustrator. (Aspiring Japanophiles can click to the bottom of this entry to see the cultural giveaways that revealed the erroneous reporting, even before we managed to locate a photo of her.)

Tokyo-based Kiyota, a/k/a Tama-chan, calls her creations Nikkori-zushi, or “smile sushi.” She currently gives workshops in Tokyo where she teaches others how to make, or attempt to make, their own Nikkori-zushi creations.

It is, of course, fiendishly difficult–though we’d like to think that industrial designers trained to think in 3D might have a leg up. Making a Nikkori-zushi brings to mind extrusions, 3D printing and cross-sections.

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