Vectors are great and all, but for occasions when a classical spin would be more fitting for your project, look no further than the past.
As reported by , the National Diet Library—Japan’s national library and among the largest libraries in the world—regularly digitizes graphics, photos, and prints from history. These are all works whose copyright has expired, so they have now been released in the public domain to be used for free.
The extensive selection includes textiles for kimonos, ukiyo-e depictions of Japanese spirits called Yōkai, drawings of Japanese desserts, and much, much, more.
— 国立国会図書館 NDL (@NDLJP) August 24, 2022
Edo-era artworks shed insight on how people spent their summers. Families would pass time by watching goldfish, and eat watermelon to beat the heat. Some people would even munch on eel “for stamina.”
In this Edo cookbook, readers are shown how to neatly cut seafood.
A picture book from the same era portrays actors in a more cartoon-like style.
These illustrations of household objects were created for children of the Meiji period (1868-1912) to cut out and paste into their craftwork. Over a century on, the objects will still look quite lovely in modern collages.
By the early 1900s, the Japanese were allured by the beauty editorial style of Yumeji Takehisa, who drew women with features “influenced by the West while wearing Japanese clothes.” The look evidently took after the Art Nouveau movement with its slim silhouettes and whiplash lines.
The clean sketches shown below, created in 1929, were ideas for advertisements.
You can use these pictures for all sorts of applications, including as phone wallpapers or printed on T-shirts. The library recommends printing out some of the patterns and cutting them into squares to create origami.
Preview more images available in the collection below, and explore the archive for yourself here.
— 国立国会図書館 NDL (@NDLJP) August 17, 2022
江戸時代流の扇風機でしょうか。江戸の夏の風景を描いた浮世絵には現代から見るとちょっと不思議な光景が広がります。
http://www.designtaxi.com/news/420122/Download-Traditional-Japanese-Artworks-Prints-Ads-For-Free/
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