Photo/Illutration Butterflies (Yukimune Ishihara)

MATSUZAKI, Shizuoka Prefecture--Noriyuki Saito calls himself an amateur, but there is nothing amateurish about the lifelike insect sculptures he crafts with just bamboo.

The 53-year-old rarely holds exhibitions and never sells his works, but he has gained a reputation through word of mouth and receives offers for shows.

Saito is a company employee and a self-taught bamboo artist. Attention to detail is the hallmark of all the pieces he painstakingly puts together.

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A mantis catching a dragonfly (Yukimune Ishihara)

For instance, to create spike-like hair on the forelegs of a mantis, Saito drills holes with a gimlet with a diameter of 0.3 millimeter before inserting fine strips of bamboo into the holes.

The compound eyes and wing veins of a dragonfly are also detailed and realistic.

Saito peruses images in encyclopedias and online to create hundreds of parts before working on a particular sculpture. It takes dexterity and patience to carve the parts and curve them with heat.

A complex piece can take him more than 80 hours to create.

Saito started making bamboo insects when he was around 40 years old. He decided he needed to change his work-centered lifestyle after he was hospitalized for two months due to illness.

He settled on bamboo crafts because he had watched his grandfather and father make baskets and accessories out of bamboo.

Saito said it took 10 years of trial and error for him to feel satisfied with his own creations.

“It’s good because I can get away from it all and immerse myself,” Saito said. “As I near completion, it gets too fun to stop.”

His works cause a stir at home and abroad when Saito posts photos of them on social media. Still, he has no intention of selling them.

“They are fragile, so fans would be disappointed when they are broken,” he added.

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