Emaki picture scrolls are not meant to be "read" in the conventional sense—they are meant to be slowly unrolled and followed visually. As the scroll is extended leftward, images appear and disappear, drawing the viewer into the story's world. This experience feels less like appreciating static art, and more like savoring an animation.

Unfortunately, opportunities to view authentic emaki are rare. In books and catalogs, they are often presented only in fragments. Even in digital formats, vertical scrolling or static image lists are common, making it difficult to experience the original horizontal "unrolling" format.

That’s why we set out to recreate the experience of scrolling through emaki using the expressive power of horizontal scrolling on the web.

This site lets you explore Heian–Kamakura emaki by theme with horizontal scrolling. Works such as Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga, Hell Scrolls, Hungry Ghosts Scrolls, and Kusōzu are rarely shown in full outside museums — here you can follow every scene in sequence.

• 🐸 Satire & Humor — Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga Gallery
• 🔥 Hell & Dark Fantasy — Hell & Hungry Ghosts Scrolls
• 💀 Impermanence — Kusōzu Gallery
• 📺 Manga & Anime Roots — Connections to modern works

Scroll horizontally through each work as if watching animation. The collection is expanding over time.

For Contributors

This project is currently undergoing refactoring in preparation for open-source (OSS) release. Starting from a minimal structure, we aim to improve the following areas over time:

• - Migration to TypeScript and updating to a newer version of Next.js
• - Structuring emaki data (using JSON, Supabase, etc.)
• - Adding thumbnail navigation and scroll indicators
• - Expanding the collection with new emaki and thematic categories

We started with Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga and Kusōzu as our MVP, and are now expanding to Hell Scrolls, Hungry Ghosts Scrolls, and thematic hub pages.

If you're intrigued by the unique theme of “Emaki × Front-End”, we invite you to join us in growing this project together!

👉 You can explore the source code and contribute via our GitHub repository .