and ja, 屋, -ya, shop is a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

operated by

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

Takashi Mifune that offers

gratis Gratis may refer to: * Free, meaning without charge. See Gratis versus libre * Gratis, Ohio, a village in Preble County, US * Gratis Township, Preble County, Ohio, US See also * Free (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

clip art Clip art (also clipart, clip-art) is a type of graphic art. Pieces are pre-made images used to illustrate any medium. Today, clip art is used extensively and comes in many forms, both electronic and printed. However, most clip art today is creat ...

illustrations. These works can be used for both commercial and non-commercial applications, but

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

is not waived, there are

moral rights Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized in civil law jurisdictions and, to a lesser extent, in some common law jurisdictions. The moral rights include the right of attribution, the right to have a work pu ...

-related restrictions on how they should be used, and restrictions to use amount per commercial project.

Overview

The site has a diverse range of free-to-use clip art illustrations and has gained a reputation as a site where illustrations of any topic can be found. The site's

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

is a black

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

named Pyoko (IPA: ʲoko̞. Before Irasutoya, there were other sites offering free clip art, but varying art styles resulted in inconsistency if illustrations from multiple sources were used. The combination of Mifune's unified art style and large range of illustrations has contributed to Irasutoya's popularity and prevalence. Irasutoya has been criticized for threatening the careers of other illustrators due to its large volume of freely available materials, but others have noted a significant decline in illustration clients making unreasonable requests as a result. A

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

trend to recreate the

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

albums An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

, and

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

s using illustrations from Irasutoya occurred in 2016. A

mobile game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...

and a recreation of a game opening sequence were also made using Irasutoya clip art. The site was updated almost daily after the release of

Setsubun is the day before the beginning of spring in the old calendar in Japan. The name literally means 'seasonal division', referring to the day just before the first day of spring in the traditional calendar, known as ; though previously referri ...

illustrations on 31 January 2012, but as Mifune became too busy to maintain the pace of updates, he temporarily stopped updating the site on 31 January 2021. Since then, updates have been irregular, with a few illustrations uploaded per month.

Subject matter

A sign at a park featuring Irasutoya illustrations In addition to typical clip art topics, unusual occupations such as nosmiologists, airport bird patrollers, and

forester A forester is a person who practises forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ecological restoration and management of protected areas. Foresters manage forests to ...

s are depicted, as are special machines like

miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a dashi stock into which softened miso paste is mixed. In addition, there are many optional ingredients (various vegetables, tofu, ''abura-age'', etc.) that may be added depending on regional and sea ...

dispensers,

centrifuge A centrifuge is a device that uses centrifugal force to separate various components of a fluid. This is achieved by spinning the fluid at high speed within a container, thereby separating fluids of different densities (e.g. cream from milk) or ...

s, transmission electron microscopes, obscure musical instruments (

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

zampoña Siku ( qu, antara, ay, siku, also "sicu," "sicus," "zampolla" or Spanish language, Spanish zampoña) is a traditional Andes, Andean panpipe. This instrument is the main instrument used in a musical genre known as sikuri. It is traditionally ...

cor anglais The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

and other ancient creatures such as ''

Hallucigenia ''Hallucigenia'' is a genus of Cambrian animal resembling worms, known from articulated fossils in Burgess Shale-type deposits in Canada and China, and from isolated spines around the world. The generic name reflects the type species' unusual ...

'' and ''

Pikaia ''Pikaia gracilens'' is an extinct, primitive chordate animal known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. Described in 1911 by Charles Doolittle Walcott as an annelid, and in 1979 by Harry B. Whittington and Simon Conway ...

'', and subjects from fantasy and games (

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

Mi-Go Mi-Go are a fictional race of extraterrestrials created by H. P. Lovecraft and used by others in the Cthulhu Mythos setting. The word Mi-Go comes from "Migou", a Tibetan word for yeti. The aliens are fungus-based lifeforms which are extremely v ...

, Buer), many of which are rare in the

free culture The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content or Free content, open content without compensation to, or the consent of, the work's origin ...

world. There are illustrations of people of various

ethnicities An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

and cultures in situations such as attending

international school An international school is an institution that promotes education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterized by a multinational student body a ...

and eating

Japanese food Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other ...

. Said ethnicities and cultures include the

Selk'nam people The Selk'nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, are an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last native groups in South America to be enco ...

, the

La Sape La Sape, an abbreviation based on the phrase Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes ( French; literally "Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People") and hinting to the French slang word ''sape'' which means "clothes" or ''sap� ...

subculture, the Gaoshan people, and

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

brides and grooms in traditional wedding costumes. Other topics include

Japan Self-Defense Forces The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, the ...

personnel,

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

, covert photography via

hidden cameras A hidden camera or spy camera is a camera used to photograph or record subjects, often people, without their knowledge. The camera may be considered "hidden" because it is not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another obje ...

and smartphones,

gaming mice A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional space, two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer (user interface ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

wisdom teeth A third molar, commonly called wisdom tooth, is one of the three molars per quadrant of the human dentition. It is the most posterior of the three. The age at which wisdom teeth come through ( erupt) is variable, but this generally occurs betwe ...

chūnibyō is a Japanese colloquial term typically used to describe early teens who have grandiose delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. It translates to "second ...

teenagers, depictions of bipedal and quadrupedal

chupacabra The chupacabra or chupacabras (, literally 'goat-sucker'; from es, chupar, 'to suck', and , 'goats') is a legendary creature in the folklore of parts of the Americas, with its first purported sightings reported in Puerto Rico in 1995. The na ...

s, and the

Antikythera mechanism The Antikythera mechanism ( ) is an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, described as the oldest example of an analogue computer used to predict astronomy, astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It could also be ...

Current events

Initially, Mifune's illustrations were mainly of a broad, general nature, but gradually, illustrations of

current events News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. New ...

(sometimes of a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

nature) began to be published. The contrast between his cutesy drawing style, the consistency of the illustrations and such themes is considered a point of interest. Illustrations on other themes ( refugee crises,

fake news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...

conspiracies A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

) and current events ( 3D-printed firearms,

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

, fidget spinners) have been added from time to time. Around February 2016, when

gacha games Gacha may refer to: * Gashapon, a kind of toy that originated in Japan which is sold inside a plastic capsule. Commonly sold in vending machines **Gacha game, video games that are monetized via a concept that is similar to gashapon. Comparable to L ...

became problematic, an illustration of a person using a giant

gashapon , also called , is a trademark of Bandai. Among the variety of vending machine-dispensed capsule toys that originated in the 1960s, it became popular in Japan and elsewhere. "Gashapon" is onomatopoeic from the two sounds "gasha" (or "gacha") f ...

machine was uploaded. The short interval between events occurring and illustrations portraying them attracted attention in early 2016, and again in March 2019, when Mifune published an illustration based on a Japanese

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

of a pufferfish vomiting water. His announcement of the illustration on

attracted 15,000 retweets. In March 2016, Mifune announced the temporary cessation of current affairs illustrations, with the sentiment that if he continued, Irasutoya would become less like a hobby and more like a job. Around two months later, an illustration parodying two-year mobile phone contracts was released.

Collaborations

alt=a poster is hung in a store, Irasutoya illustrations attached to a sign in a store Irasutoya-embroidered

handkerchiefs A handkerchief (; also called a hankie or, historically, a handkercher or a ) is a form of a kerchief or bandanna, typically a hemmed square of thin fabric which can be carried in the pocket or handbag for personal hygiene purposes such as wi ...

were sold at Nakamise-dōri in

Asakusa is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known as the location of the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as the . History The ...

from 25 December 2017 with five different illustrations (boy, girl, boy and

Kaminarimon The is the outer of two large entrance gates that ultimately leads to the Sensō-ji (the inner being the Hōzōmon) in Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. The gate, with its lantern and statues, is popular with tourists. It stands 11.7 m tall, 11.4 ...

, girl and Kaminarimon, and animals). A 2018 collaboration café with Kamakura Coffee appeared for a limited time from 23 January to 1 April. That same year, in collaboration with ''

I'm Standing on a Million Lives is a Japanese manga series written by Naoki Yamakawa and illustrated by Akinari Nao. It has been serialized in Kodansha's ''shōnen manga'' magazine ''Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine'' since June 2016. The manga is licensed in North America by Koda ...

'', serialised in

Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine is a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Kōdansha. The magazine was started in September 2009 as a spin-off of another Kōdansha magazine, ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine''. Currently running manga series Past series * '' ×××Holi ...

, a special "Wakeari Free Edition" in which all panels from the latest five volumes were replaced with Irasutoya material was published for free on

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

's "Magamega" website and in

Weekly Shōnen Magazine is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha, first published on March 17, 1959. The magazine is mainly read by an older audience, with a significant portion of its readership falling under the male high ...

. Alongside the first episode of ''I'm Standing on a Million Lives'''s first anime season, the "Wakeari Version" was broadcast in October 2020. To celebrate the 1000th episode of the ''

One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' since July 1997, with its individual chapte ...

'' manga, 20 illustrations of characters from the work—the first Irasutoya illustrations of copyrighted characters—were released on 4 January 2021. Permission was granted by

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

for use within the pre-existing terms, as long as the use does not damage the image of the work. In November 2021, Irasutoya collaborated with ''

Made in Abyss is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akihito Tsukushi. It has been serialized online in Takeshobo's digital publication ''Web Comic Gamma'' since October 2012, and has been collected into eleven ''tankōbon'' volumes. T ...

'' on a series of online

lottery A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...

merchandise. In January 2022, the

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

"Irasutoya Box" was sold in collaboration with Japanese confectioner Tirol-Choco. In March that year, Irasutoya collaborated with ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' on a large

stuffed toy A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be cal ...

featuring

Cookie Monster Cookie Monster is a blue Muppet character on the long-running PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street.'' In a song in 2004, and later in an interview in 2017, Cookie Monster revealed his real name as "Sid". He is best known for his ...

and

Elmo Elmo is a red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prio ...

, and announced the release of

Line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

stamps in collaboration with ''

Idolish7 is a Japanese rhythm game developed and published by Bandai Namco Online with music collaboration by Lantis for Android and iOS platforms, which first released in Japan on August 20, 2015. The project features character design by Arina ...

'' the following month.

Awards

* 2019 - Society for Digital Archiving '1st Society Award' Practice Prize (2018) * 2022 - Digital Media Association 'Digital Content of the Year '21 / 27th AMD Awards' Excellence Award ( FY 2021) Yoshiaki Kataoka (15 March 2022).
Grand Prize goes to TBS's Friday drama "Saiai", the 2021 'AMD Awards'
. ''INTERNET WATCH''. Viewed 10 June 2022 (UTC). "27th AMD Award '21" award ceremony Report The AMD Award Grand Prize went to "Saai" starring Yuriko Yoshitaka. Also selected were "Irassutoya" and "Uma Musume" (3/6)
. ASCII.jp x Digital. Kadokawa ASCII Research Institute. (23 Mar 2022) viewed 10 Jun 2022 (UTC)

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Instagram Japanese websites Internet properties established in 2012 2012 establishments in Japan Free content Illustration