Stories

How Mobile Phone Emoji Ended Up in a Museum

A sun, an umbrella, a train, a heart. Familiar things take shape in a handful of coloured pixels in Shigetaka Kurita’s emoji set. These 176 symbols appeared on NTT DOCOMO phones in 1999 and later became part of the collection at New York’s MoMA.

Deslove editorial team 3 min read 14 October 2026

Updated 14 October 2026

A sheet of colourful NTT DOCOMO pixel emoji showing weather, transport, objects, signs and emotions.

12 × 12 Pixels for a Single Symbol

Kurita developed the emoji for i-mode, NTT DOCOMO’s mobile internet service. The pictograms helped people convey information on small screens and add tone to short messages. MoMA dates the work itself to 1998–1999; the set was released in 1999. M+ also credits architect Jun Aoki for the graphic designs.

Each symbol had to fit into a 12 × 12 pixel grid. With just 144 cells available, forms had to be reduced to their most recognisable features. A train needs its distinctive front window; an umbrella, a canopy and handle; a cocktail glass, a triangular bowl on a stem. The edges remain blocky, yet the objects are easy to read.

The sheet reveals the range of subjects: weather, transport, food, sports, service symbols and emotions. There are only a few faces. Everyday objects and signs do much of the work, replacing a word or adding something to a message.

Shigetaka Kurita drawing in a notebook at a table with sheets of enlarged pixel symbols. — Shigetaka Kurita drawing at MoMA. Photo: Rachel Mealey / ABC News.

Were They Really the First?

Kurita’s set is often described as the first emoji, but the history goes back further. Research by the Emojipedia archive documented 90 emoji on the J-Phone SkyWalker DP-211SW, released in 1997. It is more accurate to describe NTT DOCOMO’s contribution as an influential early set than to credit one person with inventing every emoji.

From a Phone to a Museum Collection

NTT DOCOMO donated the set to MoMA in 2016. The museum presented it in “Inbox: The Original Emoji, by Shigetaka Kurita,” which ran from December 9, 2016 to March 12, 2017. Enlarged on a gallery wall, the pictograms invited a closer look at something that had occupied very little space on a phone.

Enlarged emoji on a light panel at MoMA, with four dark circular seats in front. — “Inbox: The Original Emoji, by Shigetaka Kurita,” MoMA, 2016–2017. Photo: John Wronn. Emoji: © NTT DOCOMO.

Speaking to ABC News in February 2017, Kurita described how it felt to have his work enter the museum’s collection:

It still feels like a dream.
Shigetaka Kurita, ABC News, 2017

The exhibition changes how we look at emoji. Rather than quickly choosing a symbol, we can compare their silhouettes, rhythm and degrees of simplification.