Wacom’s “Our Sparks” page highlights artwork that captures the creative sparks of our team members at Wacom, fostering a deeper connection with the community through art and creativity. The site is in Japanese and can be accessed here. This blog post is a translation of a feature from that page, highlighting one of the most recent art pieces created as part of this program: Ordinary Days at Koryo High School.
This time, we are excited to feature Ordinary Days at Koryo High School: Inspired by Choju-Giga (“Frolicking Animals“), a collaborative piece created by four talented students from Omiya Koryo High School in Saitama, Japan. Known for its specialized programs in music, fine arts, and Japanese calligraphy, alongside a strong general education curriculum that includes foreign language studies, the school nurtures both academic excellence and artistic growth. Our partnership with Omiya Koryo High School began through a connection with Mr. Shun Matsushita, head of the fine arts department. Since 2023, we have been collaborating on the Pen Tablet Art Challenge, an initiative inspired by our shared commitment to creative exploration.
The Pen Tablet Art Challenge is a creative initiative that explores cross-departmental collaboration, as well as the possibilities of both analog and digital expression. As a key milestone in this journey, students present their work at Wacom’s Connected Ink event.
Ordinary Days at Koryo High School: Inspired by Choju-Giga was created for the Pen Tablet Art Challenge 2024, bringing together students from the Fine Arts and Calligraphy departments. This collaborative piece was exhibited and presented at Connected Ink 2024 in November.
In this project, the four participating students each illustrated a scene from daily life, comparing their drawings to pieces of laundry hung out to dry. The journey of weaving these individual moments into a cohesive artwork came with its own set of challenges.
About the Artwork:
- Title: Ordinary Days at Koryo High School: Inspired by Choju-Giga (“Frolicking Animals”)
- Artists: Ayane Kayama, Yui Sasaki, Reiji Masuko, Airi Moriyama
- Advisor: Kazuki Umezawa (Artist)
- Supervisor: Shun Matsushita（Chief Teacher of Art at Omiya Koryo High School)
As part of the Pen Tablet Art Challenge 2024, four of us from the Fine Arts and Calligraphy departments came together under the guidance of Mr. Shun Matsushita to explore interdisciplinary collaboration. It was our first time using a Wacom pen tablet, so we began by having the two Fine Arts students, who had learned the basics first, share their knowledge with the two Calligraphy students. Though our disciplines differ, we all share a love for drawing. This common passion allowed us to bring together our strengths—our unique approaches to line work, conceptualization, and color—to create something meaningful.
The theme of our work was “Ordinary Days,” like that of Connected Ink 2024. At first we grappled with deep, philosophical interpretations, but ultimately we chose to depict familiar, mundane scenes from our daily lives as high school students, such as commuting to school and having breakfast.
During the trial phase, we realized that each of our drawings had a completely different vibe, making it difficult to unify them into one single piece. After a lot of deliberation, Mr. Matsushita suggested incorporating elements from “Chōjū-giga” (the famous Scrolls of Frolicking Animals). Since everyday scenes naturally involve people, we noticed that individual facial expressions and depictions of human figures were contributing to a sense of disjointedness. To resolve this, we decided to replace human characters with animals.
Guided by the wisdom of our creative advisor, Kazuki Umezawa, who reminded us that “it’s not about skill, but about staying true to the theme,” we shifted our focus from technical perfection to expressing emotions and movement.
To unify our works into one single piece, Ordinary Days at Koryo High School: Inspired by Choju-Giga, we chose to display them as laundry hanging out to dry. This everyday act carries a subtle intimacy; clothes swaying in the open often reveal something personal-perhaps even something we instinctively want to keep hidden. We hope that viewers feel a quiet thrill, as if peeking into someone’s private world. At the same time, this display method allowed each of us to preserve our individuality while uniting our work under a shared vision.
We spoke with the artists to learn more about their creative process and the meaning they infused into their work.
About the Artists:
Ayane Kayama (1st year, Fine Arts Department, Omiya Koryo High School)
From an early age, Ayane developed a passion for digital illustration and began drawing digitally in elementary school. She has a particular affinity for drawing human figures, but her recent work in Ordinary Days at Koryo High School: Inspired by Choju-Giga, marks a rare challenge for her—using animals as motifs. This project showcases her growth as an artist, blending expressive creativity with technical precision. Looking to the future, Ayane is determined to pursue a career in illustration and plans on refining her skills in creating intricate and highly detailed artwork.
Yui Sasaki (1st year, Calligraphy Department, Omiya Koryo High School)
Yui has loved drawing since childhood and discovered her love for digital art after experimenting on a friend’s pen tablet. In Ordinary Days at Koryo High School: Inspired by Choju-Giga, she incorporated calligraphy brush techniques, skillfully adjusting pen pressure to replicate the delicate lines similar to those found in Chōjū-giga (Frolicking Animals Scrolls). Moving forward, she aims to improve her coloring techniques and create more polished pieces.
Reiji Masuko (1st year, Fine Arts Department, Omiya Koryo High School)
Reiji’s passion for art began in middle school, but it was in high school—when he first saw digital artwork created with a pen tablet—that his fascination with digital techniques took root. In Ordinary Days at Koryo High School: Inspired by Choju-Giga, he experimented with color, blending modern palettes with rich background depth. Eager to push the boundaries of digital art, he aspires to further refine his skills and ultimately step into the world of manga creation.
Airi Moriyama (1st year, Calligraphy Department, Omiya Koryo High School)
Airi first discovered pen tablets through the Pen Tablet Art Challenge 2024. She has always enjoyed drawing, and using a pen tablet for the first time was an exciting experience. In Ordinary Days at Koryo High School: Inspired by Choju-Giga, she experimented with brush pen tools and was captivated by the fresh, immersive feeling of drawing directly on a display. Now, she’s eager to explore the world of digital calligraphy as well.
