MEIJI TAISHO 1868-1926

"MEIJI TAISHO 1868-1926" is a sequel to the project in which Japanese tools are reproduced as desktop icons. The complex approach to the main theme using icons and explanatory content was further expanded in the attempt to make the interlinked contents unique, rather than incidental to others, as they interconnect with each other.

It's a mixed-media project in which people can enjoy Meiji and Taishō periods - the dawn of modern Japan - through various articles, icon sets, desktop wallpapers, and a large number of illustrations from the periods.

A total of nineteen icons were created for the project and the longest production times ever were spent for each icon.

青海波 Seigaiha

"Sei-gai-ha (blue-ocean-waves)" is a natural pattern, imbricating half circles to resemble the shape of waves. Because the pattern was used for dance outfit of gagaku (Traditional court music) "Seigaiha," the pattern came to be called "Seigaiha pattern." There are several ways to pronounce the word, "Seigaiha," "Seikaiha," and "Seigainami."

"Gentlemen who stayed out all night and finished go-around on the Kichigai Kaido (Insane Street) and Nebore Kaido (Sleepy Street), look out over the clear front streets of a still-sleeping town on which brooms drew Seigaiha around gates and on which water is sprinkled…" Higuchi Ichiyo - Takekurabe (1896)

蜀江万字繋 Shokko Manji Tsunagi / Chinese brocade connecting with fylfot

"Shokko Manji Tsunagi" is one of the variants of many fylfot patterns. This pattern combines "Shokko no Nishiki (蜀江の錦 - Chinese brocade)", and a pattern that octagons are connected by squares at four sides. This desktops incorporate other patterns with the Shokko Manji Tsunagi.

割付地文様 Allocated pattern: Geometrically designed shaped pattern.
網代組麻の葉文様 Wickerwork hemp leaf pattern: One of the variants of Asanoha patterns, which looks like Asanoha woven into wickerwork.

"Referring to Manji Tsunagi, people in Kyoto and Osaka call it Rinsugata, and those in Edo call it Sayagata." Kitagawa Morisada - Morisada Mankou (1837)

mw

"mw" is a set of simple folder icons with flat shapes without chamfers and surfaces without luster. This set also includes two small sets: "Origin" and "With Icon" which share the same design but have different approaches. "Origin" has the front panel of the folder which is hollowed out in the shape of the design. The design of "With Icon" is made more realistic and is placed in front of the folder. Each variation has sixteen types, so thirty two types of icon are included.

Hiroshige Toons

"Hiroshige Toons" icons, designed for OS X, are based on the illustrations of the characters in Hiroshige's works which I drew for the flash content of EDO 1603-1867. The concept of Hiroshige illustrations is to carefully make each something like a cel drawing using a G-Pen. This set is the spin-off work of the EDO project.

EDO 1603-1867

"EDO" is planned as the first work from a project in which historical Japanese tools are reproduced as desktop icons. It's a work which attempts to take the approach of building a world inside the set one step forward. With much time spent on the pre-production research for the work, sundry media, such as explanatory contents, and introduction using flash contents, as well as icons, are multiply linked.

Fifteen types of icon are included and they are mainly daily tools such as toys, accessories, currencies, and so forth, and quick explanations of each tool are provided.

For Flash contents, "Nihonbashi Akebono Tabidachi-no-zu" from Utagawa Hiroshige's "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Gyosho versions)" were used as preliminary sketches. The Flash shows a simple animated version of a day in Edo, and people in the animation have tools that are also icons. When the flash was created, I referred to the reproduction of the drawing, etc., which were displayed at Edo-Tokyo Museum, to re-draw Nihon-bashi of the original version in a detailed manner.

The characters in the flash are also those drawn in Hiroshige's diverse works. I drew them as if they were cel drawings using G-pens. The Hiroshige prints for the characters to which I referred include "Kiso Kaido Rokuju-Kyu Tsugi", "Kouto Meisho", "Touto Meisho", "Meisho Edo Hyakkei" and so forth, in addition to Hoei-do, Reisho, and Gyosho versions of "Tokaido Gojyu-San Tsugi".

麻の葉 Asanoha / Hemp Leaf

"Asanoha (hemp leaf)" is one of the most popular Japanese traditional patterns. This pattern was named Asanoha because the shape literally looks like a hemp leaf. In spite of its name, however, the pattern did not borrow motif from a plant. It is a geometric design with six diamond-shaped patterns arranged in a radial manner. Identifying the hemp which grows well with the growth of a baby, the pattern has been often used for swaddling clothes.

"My aunt, who is an organized person, again, took out from the bottom of her old wicker basket the kimono made of cotton dyed with rosy color and that with Asanoha patterns, which she has been keeping since she lived in the country, and gazed at them." Tokuda Shusei - Ashiato (1910)

七宝 Shippo / Seven Jewels

"Shippo (seven jewels)" is a series of geometric design combining four ellipses in a circle in a way that the lines inside make more circles. The name is originated from Shippo, which means precious stones in Buddhism. Because inside the circles look shiny, people started to call the pattern Shippo.

"Vivid red color is warmly reflected on the skin of Shamisen, on the hands that play the instrument, and on the spindly book holder made of paulownia carved with Shippo and Hanabishi (flower-shaped diamonds) ." Akutagawa Ryunosuke - An old age (1914)

紗綾形 Sayagata / Manji Consective Style

"Sayagata" is a kind of geometric design with a series of fylfot (卍 Manji - key fret - swastika - Buddhist cross) patterns. Because the pattern was similar to silk fabrics brought to Japan from China which was called "Saya" in Edo Era, people started to call it Saya-gata (Saya pattern).

The fylfot pattern has taken root as a map symbol which stands for Buddhist temples in Japan. It is a classical pictogram which came from the shape of Hindu God of love Vishnu’s chest hair, and it stands for a good omen and virtue.

"I was looking at the pale hands which scoop Miso soup into a bowl, the hands of a lady in a light gray-blue Sayagata fine-patterned kimono with nicely white collar…" Izumi Kyoka - Onnakeizu (1907)

Desktop's

"Desktop's" is the photo-realistic icon set of various desktop supplies. Seventeen realistic icons such as a pencils, memopads, scissors, and grue sticks are contained in the set. The 3D models of the pencil and the scissors for this set were also used in the "mw".

Apple's Lineup '02

This the icon set has the hardware lineup of Apple in 2002. Six kinds of icons - eMac, iBook, iMac, iPod, Powerbook G4, and Power Mac G4 - were contained in the set. Also this is the first icon work using 3D graphics.

aidl [Idol]

"aidl" is a system icon set for Classic OS. These icons were created based on motifs of the world-view of the hieroglyphic characters and polytheism in Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Mayan and Aztec. They consist mainly of symbolic character icons comprising eigty nine icons and sixteen desktop patterns (see a preview).

It was a book called "Ancient Aztec Empire – Concurred Golden Nation" by Yoshiro Masuda, which I encountered by chance at an old bookstore, that inspired me to create the materials. As I continued to read related books, I became intrigued by the stunningly elaborative world-view and pictograms specific to Mesoamerican civilization and had the idea of using the concepts for the design of system icons. Mesoamerican civilization embraced polytheism based on nature worship, similar to Japanese Shinto, in which each deity symbolizes a certain category. The idea of "aidl" was to utilize the characteristics of the deities to assign roles to folders. A symbolic deity character which can be replaced for a certain usage can unify a folder, giving a certain characteristic to the folder. Twelve types of symbolic characters for the set, including outtake versions, were made.

almasy

almasy is an unique icon set which drew border line with tiny dots. The original dotted line style. The idea came from the pixel placement of an equal interval that expressed an intermediate color with net-like dithering. There are fifty system icons for Mac OS Classic in this set.

Footballers

Many icons of people's portraits were produced by mikworks from 1998 to 1999. This set consisted of many soccer player's portrait icons. There are a lot of famous players such as Roberto Baggio, Zinedine Zidane, Eric Cantona, and Zvonimir Boban in the set.

The Hidetoshi Nakata icon in the set was used on the official website of A.C. Perugia who played from 1998-2000.

Hard Disk Icons

The hard disk icon set consists of old Macintosh hardware. Eighteen different classical pixel icons are contained in the set. The Performa 5210 that was the first Macintosh that I bought, and also the first icon that I created in this set. It inspired the rest of the set which is made of icons of historic Macintosh models.

StarWars

"StarWars" is an icon set that contains the StarWars characters. These icons are one of the initial works of mikworks. The characters were chosen from the original trilogy and most were from "Return of the Jedi". Moreover, this set was edited again with an 8-bit mask in 2000.