Popular conventions that Japanese people use the Japanese characters to draw or type Emoji


This question is about the popular conventions that Japanese people use the
Japanese characters to draw or type Emoji.

What are some principles and conventions that Japanese people follow?

Here is one example -

Use の, へ, も, し, Diacritics (gojūon with (han)dakuten) to draw this Emoji:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XEWpp.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XEWpp.png)

My question is about the modern usages of Japanese characters. (Did these
drawing/Emoji happen in the past history long ago?)




The drawing is called
[へのへのもへじ](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%B8%E3%81%AE%E3%81%B8%E3%81%AE%E3%82%82%E3%81%B8%E3%81%98)
(so じ not し, mind the dots).

I guess this much is all most Japanese know (including me). The rest is what
Google taught me.

## (Modern) variations

As such, there is no conventions or principles on how letters are used for
drawing. Using them liberally, apparently [almost anything can be
drawn.](https://www.pixiv.net/tags/%E3%81%B8%E3%81%AE%E3%81%B8%E3%81%AE%E3%82%82%E3%81%B8%E3%81%98/illustrations)

There are variations to へのへのもへじ(see
[this](https://web.archive.org/web/20161011165203/http://www.geocities.jp/n80da/moheji/moheji.html)
for example). According to the wikipedia article above, there are region
dependence and some other variations to へのへのもへじ are more common in Western
Japan.

There is even a cat version. [See this for a detailed
instruction.](https://youpouch.com/2012/07/06/71911/) (The picture is taken
from the link in this page.)

[![cat
ver.](https://i.stack.imgur.com/N0B3A.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/N0B3A.png).

So people are still drawing by letters, but not that anything is comparable to
the original へのへのもへじ.

## History

(source: [1](https://www.ndl.go.jp/kaleido/entry/6/1.html), [2](https://chebi-
co.com/henoheno-mohezi/))

First, all above are called 文字絵 rather than 絵文字 (which reminds of something
like or (^_^) which [dates back to 1986-06-02.](https://www.kk-
bestsellers.com/articles/-/9716/1/)).

In Heian-period (794 - 1185), there was a type of drawing called 葦手絵, where
letters were used for drawing reeds. There is no drawing left from the period,
but modern reproductions look like
[this](https://www.facebook.com/NDLexhibition/posts/1658560337696612/).

Later Buddhist sutras were used for drawing - but the source seems missing
most images.

The origin of へのへのもへじ dates to around 17th century or later, mid Edo-period.
[Hiroshige](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige) drew へへののもへいじ like below
（read top-to-bottom, right-to-left):

[![hiroshige](https://i.stack.imgur.com/e2IhG.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/e2IhG.jpg)

[Hokusai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai) used hiragana in his [how-to
book](https://pulverer.si.edu/node/314/title/2/26). This isn't exactly drawing
by letters (more of making a sketch).

## Other

There is a type of songs called
[絵描き歌](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B5%B5%E6%8F%8F%E3%81%8D%E6%AD%8C)
(drawing songs). This is not drawing by letters, but closer to what A.Ellett
mentions in the comment. [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFT3YMvgI4A)
is one of the most popular, and also many people should have seen [how to draw
Doraemon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxV70NIGD1o).

