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# Mesmerizing GIFs of Japan's Floating World
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/mesmerizing-gifs-of-japans-floating-world/
- Published: 2015-08-20T21:54:51.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:47:00.000Z
- Description: Centuries-old Japanese ukiyo-e have received a delightful update, transformed into animated scenes that sometimes include surprising, modern imagery.
- Author: Claire Voon
- Tags: Art, Animation, GIF, Hokusai, Photo Essays, ukiyo-e, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2)

![One of Segawa Atsuki's ukiyo-e GIFs (all GIFs courtesy the artist)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original1.gif)

One of Segawa Atsuki’s ukiyo-e GIFs (all GIFs courtesy the artist)

Centuries-old Japanese [ukiyo-e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-e?ref=hyperallergic.com) have received a delightful update, transformed into animated scenes that sometimes include surprising, modern imagery. Japanese video artist and animator [Segawa Atsuki](https://twitter.com/s07741657?ref=hyperallergic.com) remixed a number of these popular woodblock prints and paintings, drawing mostly from Katsushika Hokusai’s [*Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-six%5FViews%5Fof%5FMount%5FFuji?ref=hyperallergic.com) series and [creating GIFs](http://gifmagazine.net/users/29337/profile?locale=ja&ref=hyperallergic.com) that turn the static images into mini narratives.

![original-6](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original-6.gif)

(click to enlarge)

Some of the GIFs imagine what traditional ukiyo-e scenes would look like if invaded by today’s technology: Atsuki’s version of Hokusai’s “Yoshida at Tokaido” has women in a tea house marveling at one of Japan’s high-speed bullet trains; at another tea house on a wintery morning, a woman shoots a laser beam at an airplane, causing it to explode and tumble into the ocean below — where a wave emerges to swallow it. The subject of Hokusai’s “Great Wave off Kanagawa,” arguably the most famous ukiyo-e of all, finally makes good on its threat, crashing back into the water while causing a long fishing boat to roll along the waves like a roller coaster car.

“Ukiyo-e woodcuts, especially those by Hokusai Katsushika, have a clear line, so it is easy to make them into animations,” Atsuki told Hyperallergic. “I tried to animate realistic Western paintings, but I failed because the lines of those realistic paintings aren’t clear.”

The project is just one of the many creative ways people have revisited these familiar works; others include designers who [set video games](http://hyperallergic.com/82236/the-literal-floating-world-of-video-games-in-ukiyo-e-art/) in the traditional Japanese scenes. Atsuki’s ongoing intervention, though simpler, doesn’t fail to mesmerize. Watch the historic scenes loop over and over again, below.

![original-8a](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original-8a.gif)

![original-4a](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original-4a.gif)

![original-5a](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original-5a.gif)

![original-2a](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original-2a.gif)

![original-9](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original-9.gif)

![original-3a](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original-3a.gif)

![original-7a](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/08/original-7a.gif)