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.

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.

If anyone has ever eaten oden you’ll know how this man feels. Original print: “Nakamura Konozo and Nakajima Wadayemon” by Toshusai Sharaku

This marketplace in Osaka sells all the latest gadgets. Original print: “Fish Market at Zakoba” by Utagawa Hiroshige

we hope these fisherman have their sea legs. Original print: “Under the Wave off Kanagawa” by Katsushika Hokusai