Where this came from · 始まり
It started with an empty wall and a drawer full of posters.
Nothing we owned went together, so we made our own. The pictures come out of an AI model and, honestly, most of them are bad. We keep the few we’d hang in our own hallway.
Who does what
THEN · Hanmoto · publisher
Us
We choose the themes, pick the prints and put the seal on.
THEN · Eshi · artist
An AI model
Draws a lot of drafts. Most of them go in the bin.
THEN · Horishi · carver
Words: us
We write every word. Someone who reads Japanese checks it.
THEN · Surishi · printer
Print partner (NL)
Archival inks on 200 g/m² matte paper.
In old Japan the publisher stamped the print, not the artist. We do the same. The red 版 in the corner means: we picked this one.
How we use AI
We say so
On every product page, plainly. No small print.
We write the words
The model never writes text. We do, and then it gets checked.
The Japanese gets checked
Every character, by someone who actually reads it. Our first batch taught us that.
No living artists
We never put a living artist’s name in a prompt or copy someone’s style.
Most drafts go in the bin
For every print in the shop there are a lot we didn’t keep.