Central Japan's Manga Galleries
Graphic Art Museums Devoted to Comics and Animation Giants
Exhibits devoted to key anime and manga artists are scattered throughout Japan. This article explores the museums of Central Honshu. Get there by rail from Tokyo.
The Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum in Takarazuka is the jewel in the crown of Kansai's anime and manga history, but central Honshu has other exhibits that are well worth a visit. From urban Kyoto to rural Tottori, there are fascinating sights for anime fans and pop culture enthusiasts alike.
Cute as Candy
Ninety minutes from Tokyo, in Minami-Tsuru, Yamanashi Prefecture, is a museum devoted to the creator of wide-eyed moppet Candy Candy. The Igarashi Yumiko Museum is one of two devoted to the artist, the other in Okayama prefecture. It's open 10am-5pm, closed Mondays. Adult admission is 600 yen.
Small is Beautiful at Kyoto Tezuka Museum
The small but fascinating Osamu Tezuka World in Kyoto Station might almost be the Takarazuka museum's little sister. It has changing displays on Tezuka's characters, a shop and a movie theatre, and those with time to kill between trains can drop in easily. Open all year round from 10am-7pm, admission to the exhibition is free but there is a charge for the movie theater - 400 yen for adults, 200 for children. While you're there, don't miss the seven-foot-tall water clock modelled on Tezuka's Phoenix in the underground mall just outside the station.
Kyoto Enshrines World Comic Culture
The Kyoto International Manga Museum looks back to the earliest roots of Japan's graphic arts, in mediaeval picture scrolls, and takes you on a journey through shadow puppets plays and kamishibai performers to the present, when Japan's comic culture has gone global. It offers constantly changing displays, thousands of manga to browse, a huge archive, a children's play area, a shop, tea room and café. The walls of the café are covered with impromptu art by famous names in manga. Open daily from 10 am-8 pm, closed Wednesdays, it's near Karasuma-Oike station on Kyoto's subway. Adult admission is 500 yen.
Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins at Mizuki Memorial Museum
Sakaiminato is in the southwest of Honshu looking across to the Korean peninsula, six hours from Tokyo by train. It's the hometown of GeGeGe no Kitaro author Shigeru Mizuki. A contemporary of Shotaro Ishinomori and Osamu Tezuka, Mizuki is in his eighties and is also known as a writer and biographer. His museum is open from 9.30am-5pm, closed Tuesdays and New Year. Adult admission is 700 yen, and the museum offers an annual passport.
The Mizuki Museum is a shrine to his passion for yokai, the ghosts and goblins of Japanese folklore, as well as his manga. A renowned folklore scholar, Mizuki has collected artefacts from all over the world, but the museum also brings the spirits to life through sound, lighting, sfx and film.
A hundred bronze statues of yokai from Mizuki's works line the road to the museum, a ten minute walk from Sakaiminato station. The street also has a yokai shrine, a Kitaro phone box, distinctive street lamps and many Mizuki-themed gift shops. Takashi Miike's 2005 remake of Yokai Daisenso (Great Goblin Wars) is set in the area and was heavily Mizuki-influenced.
Japan's anime and manga museums offer plenty to tempt the visitor off the beaten track. If you want to learn more about Japan's popular culture, they're a good place to start.
