The Best and Brightest of Japan’s Twitter Artists

The best artists in Japan to follow on Twitter.

In Japan, many famous artists have strong social media followings on Twitter, but recently lesser known illustrators and creative talents have been recently using a hashtag to gain more attention and hopefully strike it big. The hashtag, #私の作品もっと沢山の人に広がれ祭り, translates to "A festival to spread my work out to more people!", and it's certainly worked to showcase a variety of hidden artistic gems. While several of the artists introduced below are already acclaimed in their own right, many gained popularity via the hashtag and routinely put out truly fascinating work.

Here are several examples of artists in Japan making a name for themselves on Twitter, with more detailed articles linked as well. Do yourself and follow them for even more awesome pieces!

The dark and twisted illustrations of Avogado6

Japanese artist Avogado6 is by no means a man of many words, but his thought-provoking illustrations speak plenty on their own. He posts illustrations almost daily, many of which explore troubling social and mental issues. Here is a primer for his outstanding artwork.

Heartwarming father and son illustration collaboration series

Tokyo-based French anime artist Thomas Romain partners with his young sons in what they call the Father and Son Illustration Series. Romain takes his sons' sketches and turns them into awesome anime characters using his skills as a professional artist. Check out more of his work here.

Giant animals comforting humans in times of need

Japanese illustrator Kubota's artwork may be best viewed after a grueling day at the job or school, as they care a theme of gigantic animals appearing out of nowhere to comfort and console humans in their most trying times. Find out more about Kubota's work here.

The amazing but terrifying gigantic wearable felt cat head

Housetsu Sato originally got the idea to produce the "Real Cat Head" from his students at the Japanese School of Wool Art, and after applying some creative elbow grease and needle-felt skills, started making the enormous and super-realistic felt cat heads for sale. They aren't exactly cheap, but if you want to give your friends some fluffy nightmares find out more here.

Beautiful women in kimono by Miki Katoh

Miki Katoh accents the grace of beautiful women clad in detailed kimono with gorgeous backdrops of modern architecture and scenic Japanese sights such as Mt. Fuji. She also generously designed Grape Japan's top image. Check out more of her beautiful artwork here.

Amazing anthro-animal series gives them fantastical styles from around the world

Tobihachi's artwork focuses on animals and anthropomorphism, sometimes even detailing the beautiful creatures with nationalities and imagery from Japanese culture such as samurai armor and kitsune masks. Check out more of Tobihachi's fantastical style and be sure to follow.

Hiroyuki-Mitsume Takahashi's vibrantly unique pop-culture artwork

Designer and artist Hiroyuki-Mitsume Takahashi is certainly loud and gaudy, but never at the sake of sacrificing the myriad of impressive details found in his artwork, which range from popular Japanese subcultures to Buddhist imagery. His vibrant artwork and seamless live painting performances are a fantastic artistic depiction of Japanese youth culture.

Life's awkward but relatable moments as ukiyo-e paintings

Web designer Takayuki Yamada takes the awkward and mundane moments we manage to stumble into in our everyday lives and turns them into ukiyo-e style paintings that seems to make us say, "we've all been there before."

When you really want to taste that sample but you try to act uninterested.

When you check out your reflection only to find someone on the other side.

3D anime artwork that's too good to believe

Minadori Naya combines high quality illustrations of characters from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica and Kantai Collection with Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica and Kantai Collection with optical illusion to create almost impossibly good 3D artwork.