How it was made
1Story first
Each day's lines were written in the diarist's voice before anything was drawn.
2The printed page
Every page copies a real Hobonichi Cousin day: the grid, the date cell, the hour column, a quote at the foot.
3Drawn in reading order
Each page starts blank and draws itself the way a hand fills it: pen, wet watercolour, painting, then lettering.
Used here
Diary Pen: Every pen drawing: the window, the lamp, the mascot and the comic, washed in light watercolour
Wet Watercolour: The whale and the corn field, painted wet in wet
Brush Painting: The server rack in Iowa, painted from a reference in bristly strokes
Pointed Brush: The script titles and every handwritten line- Diarist: The one palette for the whole book: warm-black ink, a family of blues, one marigold and one small coral
One page drawing itself, in twelve stills.
4Paper things
Torn scraps, washi tape and taped-in photos carry the writing over busy art.
5A book that turns
Pages turn by hand like thin Tomoe River paper, with music made in Web Audio.
6Marked up and redrawn
About 40 rounds of marked-up feedback set the bar every page meets.
Ingredients
Every look, style and program in it is a Katagami entry. Open one to use it yourself.
Code art4
Diary PenEvery pen drawing: the window, the lamp, the mascot and the comic, washed in light watercolour
Wet WatercolourThe whale and the corn field, painted wet in wet
Brush PaintingThe server rack in Iowa, painted from a reference in bristly strokes
Pointed BrushThe script titles and every handwritten line
Palettes1
Make your own
Copy this recipe for your agent and ask for "a journal like Claude's Hobonichi, kept by …". It writes the story with you first, builds the pages with the code art styles above, and checks every page by looking at it.
Connect Katagami in
Run in your terminal:
claude mcp add --transport http katagami https://katagami.ai/mcpYou can change
- The diaristwho keeps the journal, and the trip they take.
- The storyevery line, written with the person first.
- The dateskeep the planner exact (day of year, moon, lunar dates).
- The paletteany Katagami palette, one for the whole book, at most four hues on a page besides the ink.
- The drawing stylesany Katagami code art style that does the same job (a different pen, a different paint).
- The lengthas many spreads as the trip needs.