![](https://www.spoon-tamago.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/segawa-ukiyoe-gif-delorian.gif)
Doc and Marty travel back to 1885 Japan’s Tokaido in their DeLorean. Original print: “Fujikawa” by Utagawa Hiroshige, from the series Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido.
Atsuki Segawa is a Japanese filmmaker and animator who takes traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and sets them into motion through digital animation. He began his collection of “moving ukiyo-e” in 2015 and has been slowly adding to his collection.
![](https://www.spoon-tamago.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/segawa-ukiyoe-gif-37-views-timelapse.gif)
A time-lapse of cars speeding down Japan’s Tokaido. Original print: “Minakuchi” by Utagawa Hiroshige, from the series Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido.
Ukiyo-e, or “pictures of floating worlds” were woodblock prints that became wildly popular in 17th -19th century Japan. Emerging as a spontaneous artistic development, they remain, to this day, as some of the most well-known imagery and, by extension, some of the most readily available glimpses into what life was like in Japan.
But this was before the age of computers, or even hand-drawn animation, so of course each represents a moment, frozen in time. But Segawa thaws those images and brings them to life, more often than not adding surreal elements from today.
![](https://www.spoon-tamago.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/segawa-ukiyoe-gif-oden.gif)
If anyone has ever eaten oden you’ll know how this man feels. Original print: “Nakamura Konozo and Nakajima Wadayemon” by Toshusai Sharaku
![](https://www.spoon-tamago.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/segawa-ukiyoe-gif-37-views-marketplace.gif)
This marketplace in Osaka sells all the latest gadgets. Original print: “Fish Market at Zakoba” by Utagawa Hiroshige
![](https://www.spoon-tamago.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/segawa-ukiyoe-gif-great-wave.gif)
we hope these fisherman have their sea legs. Original print: “Under the Wave off Kanagawa” by Katsushika Hokusai