CASHI

Risako KOKUBU To the Sea of Nostalgia 2025 Photo by Hana Yamamoto

“Optical Strike”
Fri. 16 May – Sat. 14 June, 2025 (Sat)
Artists: Risako KOKUBU

CASHI is pleased to present Optical Strike, a solo exhibition by artist Risako Kokubu.

Born in Tokyo in 1999, Kokubu is currently enrolled in the Department of New Media at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts. Her paintings distill early perceptual experiences and encounters with video-game screens into abstract forms, expressed through gestural lines and vivid colors. She has gained attention through exhibitions such as her solo show Empyrean Sparkle (2025, Gallery & Restaurant Butaiura, Tokyo) and the group exhibition sandbox (2024, CASHI, Tokyo).

In Optical Strike, Kokubu presents a new body of work exploring the visual impact and sense of interaction she experienced as a child using Flipnote Studio, a Nintendo DSiWare application known in Japan as Ugoku Memo-chō (“Moving Notepad”).

Released by Nintendo in 2004, the Nintendo DS was a groundbreaking handheld console with dual screens and a touchscreen interface. It became a cultural touchstone for an entire generation—children gathered in parks after school, while adults were often seen playing during their commute. Through multiple iterations—including the DS Lite, DSi, and 3DS—the system remained central to gaming culture for more than a decade.

Flipnote Studio, launched for the DSi in 2008, enabled users to create stylus-drawn flip-book animations and share them online. Its companion website, Flipnote Hatena (operated by Hatena Co., Ltd.), offered ranked and categorized access via any internet-connected device. Many popular “flipnotes” were re-uploaded to Nico Nico Douga, attracting viewers far beyond the DS community.

Flipnote culture, however, possessed an unruly, improvisational, and bodily quality—what some users retrospectively call their “cringe phase,” or even their “black history.” Unlike the polished and stylized aesthetics that would later define Japanese online illustration culture—particularly on platforms like Pixiv, Flipnote was raw and experimental. While primarily used by children, it became a space where drawing, animating, and sharing came together in one tactile, immediate experience. Long before smartphones were common, many young users encountered online communication for the very first time through this platform—not by browsing websites, but by trading frame-by-frame visual chats drawn directly on a tiny screen.
The acts of expression and response that emerged between one’s fingertips and the glowing LCD may have formed a small, self-contained world—entirely held within their hands.

In Optical Strike, Kokubu channels these early encounters with moving images and embodied perception, capturing flashes of sensory intensity on canvas. We invite you to experience these visual strikes firsthand.

Press Release(en)