Ancient Japanese Art Looks a Lot Like Sketchup

I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday and did a double-take in an exhibit called "Storytelling in Japanese Art." (How could I miss an exhibit with the word "storytelling" in it...?) In artworks and hand painted scrolls going back to the 14th century, the Japanese were all over the use of perpective and exploded graphics to show characters and explain the story being told. Need to show a domestic scene? Remove the roof!

Many illustrations reminded me exactly of Google Sketchup.

The coolest items were a series of long hand scrolls meant to be unrolled and rolled as the story is read left to right. The diagonal perspective actually leads the eye to the right urging continued reading.

 Oh, and there was a healthy balance of type and imagery...