Of the many people one might expect to meet at the Abu Dhabi Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (Adihex), a Japanese sugar sculptor is not among them.
Takahiro Mizuki is one of just a handful of master craftsmen, practicing amezaiku – the art of sculpting elaborate sweets into a wide array of forms such as animals.
As he begins performing, a crowd quickly gathers. They watch as he dusts his fingers and picks out a thick, molten lump of sugary syrup.
“This is gelatinous starched syrup,” says the 45-year-old from Tokyo, rolling it into a ball; quickly – presumably to keep from burning his hands. “Originally, it is a liquid, and I prepare it by boiling it and making it thicker.”
He places the ball – now hardening, and a perfect sphere – onto the end of a thick plastic straw, and picks up his main tool, a small pair of iron scissors. Always working quickly, he cuts at the sphere, and begins moulding it, pinching part of it and stretching it. Although it could still be one of any animals, a few cuts and bends later and it is very clear Mizuki has a horse in the works. “All I have to do is construct one particular point, and then exaggerate it. For example,” he pauses and places his arm near his nose, forming a mock-elephant’s trunk, before mimicking an elephant’s cry and laughing.
Once he has contoured the horse into graceful shape, he picks up a small brush and paints a pair of eyes with food colouring.
The horse is one of the most popular animals requested at Adihex, along with “falcons, of course” and camels. He takes odder requests as well, and is more than happy to make a Pikachu, if asked.
Mizuki’s tools and material are neatly stored in a light brown, square box, with numerous small drawers. One drawer is left open, with brushes dipped in various food colouring jars. Inside a larger compartment is an electric heater, which is used to heat and boil the material. “In older times, this would have been a charcoal heater, with fire,” he says.
On top rests a shelf pierced full of holes. This is where he hangs the animals upside down to cool and harden in the windstream of an electric fan. Before he hands out the hard horse lollipop, he taps it with his scissors – to a chime of perfection.
Amezaiku originates in Western Japan, where sweets were originally just twisted. During the Edo period (1603 to 1868), the Tokugawa shogunate united Japan and introduced an era of peace after centuries of internecine strife. As a result, the economy boomed and, Mizuki says, people gained an appreciation for the finer things in life.
“Elder craftsmen suddenly started trying to make animals – and that’s the way it started.”
While Mizuki says only between 10 and 20 people are able to perform amezaiku, there are even fewer masters.
“I think there are only five or six masterclass artisans. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, so, year-by-year I am getting better and better, little by little.”
Some of the other masters apprenticed elder craftsmen, but Mizuki taught himself. “I stole the techniques,” he smiles. “When I first saw someone do it on television, just for a few seconds, it attracted me and I just wanted to try it.”
When the opportunity arose to meet his televised hero, Mizuki seized it, and went to watch him craft one hundred edible pieces – in just six hours.
He was working in IT at the time but started making candy for his friends and family – even performing at a friend’s wedding, where he met his wife. Today, he says he has a lot more fun with his job. “I’m happy.”
A simple piece of amezaiku candy will usually sell for about Dh15, and while some of his peers own stores, Mizuki prefers to travel, setting up stalls across Japan and the world. It is his second time at Adihex and his fourth in Abu Dhabi, having performed twice at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference.
Mizuki also makes flowers using his amezaiku technique – though this is a still rarer skill.
“It’s different from the Western way. Western artisans will make them piece by piece, putting them together one by one. But my way, I start with just one ball and I make it from that.
“I will show you something very rare. Very rare,” Mizuki says, as he takes out a cloth pouch with a tube attached. He makes a sphere out of hot candy and places it onto a straw.
“This is the first time doing this in Abu Dhabi,” he continues, as he places the tube onto the end of the straw. He pumps it up a little bit, and then hands it over. The aim is to slowly blow into the tube like a glass blower, turn it around, blow again and repeat until it inflates into a candy balloon.
When it’s inflated, he leaves it to cool down – which it does, becoming a hard but fragile form. Mizuki places two sticks into the two of the holes on the shelf where he usually places the candy to cool, then holds the sugar balloon against them – proving that it is too large to pass in between.
“This is actually a good size – so you would win,” he smiles.Making balloon candy is an old game, he explains, in which anyone brave enough can pay to see whether they can blow a balloon too big to pass through the sticks. The prize? “They get a good amezaiku. They can take any one they like.”
If they fail? “They can take home the balloon,” he smiles.
Hareth Al Bustani is a features writer at The National.
