3 ms·

Kenichi Shinohara's pixel art Ukiyo-e (1987)

85 points by msephton 3y ago

msephton 3y ago
"From LOGiN 1987 No 5, the story of 篠原賢 Kenichi Shinohara who "for something to do" at the age of 60 years old began using an NEC PC-98 to draw pixel art reproductions of Ukiyo-e and printing them as folding screens and kites!"
throwaway71271 3y ago
offtopic: There is a link to the article LOGiN magazine from 1987: https://archive.org/details/login-may-1987/LOGiN%20-%20May%201987/page/n171/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/login-may-1987/LOGiN%20-%20May%2... Around page 318 you can see some games https://archive.org/details/login-may-1987/LOGiN%20-%20May%201987/page/318/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/login-may-1987/LOGiN%20-%20May%2... I just love this way of sharing software, not sure why, because it seems super tedious to write 20 pages of line numbered basic, but in the same time it seems freeing, as you can change it as you write it, and the interaction between the user and the program seems very intimate. Maybe if we went the lisp way this would've been more possible to just change the software you use, kind of like pico8 (https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php) where you just hit escape and you can edit the lua code. Somehow personal computing became not personal at all.
- alex_suzuki 3y ago
  I didn‘t have a C64 when I was growing up, but I think there were a lot of magazines for the C64 with code in their issues and I imagine it must have been thrilling to type it out and understand it in the process. Example: http://www.homecomputerworld.at/magazine/64er/64er_sonderheft_1.pdf http://www.homecomputerworld.at/magazine/64er/64er_sonderhef...
  - Theizestooke 3y ago
    Yeah, in Germany you had Happy Computer as well as 64er with monthly (or was it weekly?) listings of games and utilities.
- helpfulContrib 3y ago
  [dead]
- glimshe 3y ago
  I learned programming from these magazines. It's the ultimate open source, as the code was generally small enough that you had a shot of understanding every single line. Sometimes the code listing was documented in the article, which explained how the implementation worked, rather than just explaining what the application does.
- Cthulhu_ 3y ago
  Things like that were in my dad's PC magazines; I tried to do it once when I was a kid, unsuccessfully of course because I had no idea what I was doing.
- msephton 3y ago
  The Japanese did these "type-in" source code listings really well, much better than I saw growing up in England. They eventually adopted entering complicated listings as hex code with checksums, which was both faster and less error prone but of course less readable. The bootstrap code would spit out the line where the error was when the checksum failed and you could easily correct in small groups.
dianne_tatsuro 3y ago
typo: 篠原賢 should be 篠原賢一
- msephton 3y ago
  Thanks!
wodenokoto 3y ago
I'm assuming the raw pixels are long lost to time. Would be cool to have a print of some of those.
- Fricken 3y ago
  Going off the headline I was under the impression I'd be seeing pixellated images carved into wood blocks.
  - msephton 3y ago
    Depends where you want to place the emphasis. "Pixel Art Ukiyo-e" places the focus on the primary medium being pixel art, and it's use to recreate ukiyo-e. The other way round is equally valid but changes the primary emphasis to Ukiyo-e, which was undesirable for me.
    - Fricken 3y ago
      Pixel art is a style that can be produced across many mediums, and Ukiyo-e is a medium that can accomodate a variety of styles. So a replication of Ukiyo-e art on a screen isn't actually Ukiyo-e anymore than a print of a Van Gogh painting is actually a Van Gogh painting.
      - msephton 3y ago
        I think you're agreeing with me.
FuriouslyAdrift 3y ago
Related... Tatsuo Horiuchi draws using Microsoft Excel. No, really. https://pasokonga.com/ https://pasokonga.com/
totetsu 3y ago
I have enjoyed GrafX2 a modern 256 color bitmap paint program with 1980s vibes.
- msephton 3y ago
  256 colours was positively mind blowing in the era of 8- or 16-colours (like in this article).
selimthegrim 3y ago
This should have been published in the same magazine as Zelazny’s 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai
sen_armstrong 3y ago
Maybe this guy's work is still floating around somewhere. Here's a retro art gallery with a mix of east and west: https://tomseditor.com/gallery/browse https://tomseditor.com/gallery/browse So much is out there that this gallery of someone's favorites is entirely distinct from the first one: https://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=32978.0 https://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=32978.0 If you filter by platform, the Japanese PCs are FM, MSX, X68k, PC-98xx, and PC-8xxx. self-portraits: https://t.vndb.org/sf/97/94697.jpg https://t.vndb.org/sf/97/94697.jpg https://tomseditor.com/gallery/tag/computer https://tomseditor.com/gallery/tag/computer (some modern retro-styled stuff obviously made it in) How It's Made: https://tomseditor.com/gallery/i/51199/drawing https://tomseditor.com/gallery/i/51199/drawing "Draw me on one of your LCD screens" https://tomseditor.com/gallery/i/44324/debut-81 https://tomseditor.com/gallery/i/44324/debut-81 "ぜんまいちゃん" must be the first OS-girl https://tomseditor.com/gallery/_x68k/png/50403.png https://tomseditor.com/gallery/_x68k/png/50403.png Incredibly, googling zenmai-chan finds posts from 2022. 1992 to 2022, that's older than the idea of memes on the internet!
- sen_armstrong 3y ago
  btw... The first one there is a NEC PC-9801VX(0/2/01/21), but the drawn model number looks more like MX (doesn't exist) or UX (look different). The notebook's single labeled dial means it's probably a PC-9801NA/C. The X68000's graphics tablet might be a Wacom UD or UD II with a stylized menu strip. Its monitor is a Sharp CZ-60(6/8)D. The misplaced indentation on the X68k's second tower is an error.

85 points by msephton 3y ago

"From LOGiN 1987 No 5, the story of 篠原賢 Kenichi Shinohara who "for something to do" at the age of 60 years old began using an NEC PC-98 to draw pixel art reproductions of Ukiyo-e and printing them as folding screens and kites!"

throwaway71271 3y ago

offtopic: There is a link to the article LOGiN magazine from 1987: https://archive.org/details/login-may-1987/LOGiN%20-%20May%201987/page/n171/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/login-may-1987/LOGiN%20-%20May%2... Around page 318 you can see some games https://archive.org/details/login-may-1987/LOGiN%20-%20May%201987/page/318/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/login-may-1987/LOGiN%20-%20May%2... I just love this way of sharing software, not sure why, because it seems super tedious to write 20 pages of line numbered basic, but in the same time it seems freeing, as you can change it as you write it, and the interaction between the user and the program seems very intimate. Maybe if we went the lisp way this would've been more possible to just change the software you use, kind of like pico8 (https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php) where you just hit escape and you can edit the lua code. Somehow personal computing became not personal at all.

alex_suzuki 3y ago
I didn‘t have a C64 when I was growing up, but I think there were a lot of magazines for the C64 with code in their issues and I imagine it must have been thrilling to type it out and understand it in the process. Example: http://www.homecomputerworld.at/magazine/64er/64er_sonderheft_1.pdf http://www.homecomputerworld.at/magazine/64er/64er_sonderhef...
- Theizestooke 3y ago
  Yeah, in Germany you had Happy Computer as well as 64er with monthly (or was it weekly?) listings of games and utilities.
helpfulContrib 3y ago
[dead]
glimshe 3y ago
I learned programming from these magazines. It's the ultimate open source, as the code was generally small enough that you had a shot of understanding every single line. Sometimes the code listing was documented in the article, which explained how the implementation worked, rather than just explaining what the application does.
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
Things like that were in my dad's PC magazines; I tried to do it once when I was a kid, unsuccessfully of course because I had no idea what I was doing.
msephton 3y ago
The Japanese did these "type-in" source code listings really well, much better than I saw growing up in England. They eventually adopted entering complicated listings as hex code with checksums, which was both faster and less error prone but of course less readable. The bootstrap code would spit out the line where the error was when the checksum failed and you could easily correct in small groups.

dianne_tatsuro 3y ago

typo: 篠原賢 should be 篠原賢一

msephton 3y ago
Thanks!

wodenokoto 3y ago

I'm assuming the raw pixels are long lost to time. Would be cool to have a print of some of those.

Fricken 3y ago
Going off the headline I was under the impression I'd be seeing pixellated images carved into wood blocks.
- msephton 3y ago
  Depends where you want to place the emphasis. "Pixel Art Ukiyo-e" places the focus on the primary medium being pixel art, and it's use to recreate ukiyo-e. The other way round is equally valid but changes the primary emphasis to Ukiyo-e, which was undesirable for me.
  - Fricken 3y ago
    Pixel art is a style that can be produced across many mediums, and Ukiyo-e is a medium that can accomodate a variety of styles. So a replication of Ukiyo-e art on a screen isn't actually Ukiyo-e anymore than a print of a Van Gogh painting is actually a Van Gogh painting.
    - msephton 3y ago
      I think you're agreeing with me.

FuriouslyAdrift 3y ago

Related... Tatsuo Horiuchi draws using Microsoft Excel. No, really. https://pasokonga.com/ https://pasokonga.com/

totetsu 3y ago

I have enjoyed GrafX2 a modern 256 color bitmap paint program with 1980s vibes.

msephton 3y ago
256 colours was positively mind blowing in the era of 8- or 16-colours (like in this article).

selimthegrim 3y ago

This should have been published in the same magazine as Zelazny’s 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai

sen_armstrong 3y ago

Maybe this guy's work is still floating around somewhere. Here's a retro art gallery with a mix of east and west: https://tomseditor.com/gallery/browse https://tomseditor.com/gallery/browse So much is out there that this gallery of someone's favorites is entirely distinct from the first one: https://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=32978.0 https://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=32978.0 If you filter by platform, the Japanese PCs are FM, MSX, X68k, PC-98xx, and PC-8xxx. self-portraits: https://t.vndb.org/sf/97/94697.jpg https://t.vndb.org/sf/97/94697.jpg https://tomseditor.com/gallery/tag/computer https://tomseditor.com/gallery/tag/computer (some modern retro-styled stuff obviously made it in) How It's Made: https://tomseditor.com/gallery/i/51199/drawing https://tomseditor.com/gallery/i/51199/drawing "Draw me on one of your LCD screens" https://tomseditor.com/gallery/i/44324/debut-81 https://tomseditor.com/gallery/i/44324/debut-81 "ぜんまいちゃん" must be the first OS-girl https://tomseditor.com/gallery/_x68k/png/50403.png https://tomseditor.com/gallery/_x68k/png/50403.png Incredibly, googling zenmai-chan finds posts from 2022. 1992 to 2022, that's older than the idea of memes on the internet!

sen_armstrong 3y ago
btw... The first one there is a NEC PC-9801VX(0/2/01/21), but the drawn model number looks more like MX (doesn't exist) or UX (look different). The notebook's single labeled dial means it's probably a PC-9801NA/C. The X68000's graphics tablet might be a Wacom UD or UD II with a stylized menu strip. Its monitor is a Sharp CZ-60(6/8)D. The misplaced indentation on the X68k's second tower is an error.