Miyuki is an
amezaiku
is Japanese candy craft artistry. An artist takes multi-colored ''mizuame'' and, using their hands and other tools such as tweezers and scissors, creates a sculpture. Amezaiku artists also paint their sculpted candy with edible dyes to give the ...
artist who had performed at
Epcot
Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unreal ...
's Japanese Pavilion inside the
World Showcase
Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a Amusement park, theme park at the Walt Disney World, Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Disney Parks, Experiences and ...
since 1996; with her last performances occurring on November 23, 2013. She creates sculptures on a stick from soft rice dough, a taffy-like product made from corn starch and sugar. She makes animals at the request of guests, in mere seconds; the most popular request is dragon. She starts with a white base and adds color as needed. The candy she works with is heated to 200 degrees to make it malleable, which is one of the reasons so few people have mastered this art. She must work quickly before the sugar cools and hardens.
Miyuki is one of the only women trained in
Ame Zaiku or Japanese Candy Art, a candy artistry dating back 250 years to the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
. There are only 15 formally trained
Ame Zaiku artists in the world. Miyuki began her apprenticeship in 1989 under her grandfather Mr. Kinura. After completing her training and becoming an independent candy artist, she traveled to Italy in 1994. She has also traveled extensively in Japan and Europe to demonstrate her artistic creation of the candy arts at conventions, local festivals, and private parties.
She has a daughter, Shido, and when asked by a guest if she plans on teaching her daughter this gift replies, "no, she cries because her hands hurt" (from the temperature).
She has appeared on a number of TV shows, such as ''
The Rosie O'Donnell Show
''The Rosie O'Donnell Show'' is an American daytime variety television talk show created, hosted, and produced by actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell. It premiered on June 10, 1996, and concluded after six seasons on May 22, 2002.
This talk sh ...
'' (2001), ''Sweet Dreams'' on
The Food Network
Food Network is an American basic cable
Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. ...
(October 2003), and
The Travel Channel
Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...
.
References
Walt Disney World Resort - Miyuki home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miyuki, Candy
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts entertainment
Epcot
People in food and agriculture occupations
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)