Drawing Tokyo’s Nostalgic Atmosphere — An Interview With Shinji Tsuchimochi

Maybe you do not know his name, but if you like Japan or cute illustrations, then you probably have already seen some of his works online. Shinji Tsuchimochi is a Tokyo-born illustrator who started drawing scenes of the Tokyo traditional districts as a way to express himself beside his main job — painting backgrounds for Japanese animation series. His cute, nostalgic depictions of the backstreets of Tokyo have won him fans all over the world and thousands of followers on his Twitter account.

Now, he is working on a new project that aims to revive the old art of ukiyo-e [woodblock prints] in our modern world. Read on to discover the creative world of this discreet illustrator.

Drawing the “100 Views of Tokyo”

You have been drawing since you were a kid. Could you tell us more about the path that led you to become an illustrator?

At first, I drew a lot of manga because I liked them a lot. In middle school, I started liking art and looking at ukiyo-e and Hokusai’s manga. I got really interested, and when the time to enter university came, I decided to study it at a deeper level. I studied traditional Japanese painting and its art materials at Tama Art University. After I graduated, I started working for a company that…