Manga Tour Day 7, Pt. 1: Kyoto International Manga Museum

Day 7 of my Pop Japan Travel / Mind Over Manga journey gave me a morning in Kyoto to visit the Kyoto International Manga Museum, and the afternoon and evening in Osaka. Since a lot was packed into this day, I'm splitting up Day 7 into two posts. First, the manga museum, which was closed on my other day in this city, so I made a point to squeeze in a visit on my last morning in Kyoto. The weather was oppressively humid -- so much so that my camera lens immediately fogged up when I tried to take a photo of the museum.

The rest of the group went off to enjoy a river boat trip down the scenic Hozu River and lunch in Arashiyama. Since I had enjoyed that excursion on a prior trip to Kyoto, I opted to check out the museum and to see the current show, Shojo Manga: Girl Power!

Shojo Manga: Girl Power! features original artwork, prints and videos of the work of shojo manga creators including contemporary creators such as Fumi Yoshinaga (Antique Bakery, Flower of Life), CLAMP (Card Captor Sakura, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles) and influential legends such as Moto Hagio (A, A', Heart of Thomas), Osamu Tezuka (Princess Knight, Astro Boy) and Leiji Matsumoto (Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999). This show was curated by University of California - Chico professor Masami Toku. I had missed its prior stops in Los Angeles, Vancouver, B.C. and New York, so I was glad to finally see it on the Japanese leg of its world tour.

The exhibit provides a sweeping overview of the evolution of Japanese comics for girls from the post-war period / 1950's through the early 2000's. While the artwork shown are mostly reproductions, there were several original pages from Yoshinaga and high quality reproductions that show the pencil and pen strokes that you'd see in the original pages. There were also videos of manga artists drawing and talking about their work. Reading the descriptions of the stories featured in this exhibit made me wish I could read more of these shojo series in English, especially the dark, psychological dramas by Masako Watanabe (St. Rosalindo) and Glass Mask (Glass no Kamen), the iconic shojo series about acting by Suzue Miuchi.

What was equally striking about this exhibit were the attendees. I saw women in their 50's and 60's oohing and ahhing over the artwork and talking about them animatedly as much as the teens, tweens and twenty-somethings who were also in attendance. Large tour groups also filed into the museum to check out the exhibits. Manga truly is entertainment for all ages in Japan and it's not just for the otaku either.

The Kyoto International Manga Museum opened in November 2006 as a project that was co-sponsored by the City of Kyoto and Kyoto Seika University (where legendary manga-ka Keiko Takemiya is a professor). The museum is a remodeled elementary school, and while there are many modern touches, you can see hints of its past life. I wasn't able to take photos of the interior of the museum, but there are lots of photos on their official website, so check 'em out.

The rest of the museum features an extensive collection of vintage and current manga that visitors are welcome to browse and read, as well as temperature-controlled archives in the basement, where examples of early manga from the turn of the century to the present are available for scholarly research. On weekends, students from nearby Kyoto Seika University provide manga drawing demonstrations and for an additional fee, a manga artist will draw your portrait. At various times throughout the day, an old time kami-shibai (paper play) storyteller shares the story of Momotaro (Peach Boy) as they did in post-war years.

The gift shop is also pretty cool, with books about manga, art prints, souvenirs and even traditionally printed towels with non-traditional images from Go Nagai's Devil Man and Mazinger Z and Kazuo Umezu's Cat-Eyed Boy and Makoto-chan. I even saw copies of Mike Mignola's Hell Boy and Adrine Tomine's Sleepwalk.

From September 6 - 8, 2008, the museum will host the 9th International Comic Artist Conference. I'm super-bummed I'll miss this, because it looks like a very special event, featuring manga artists lectures, demonstrations and exhibits. This biannual event has been held in Korea, China and in Yokohama, and features the work of comic artists from throughout Asia. Concurrent events include a musical based on Hochonin Ajihei (Chef Ajihei), a cooking manga by Big Jo, a cosplay event, and a retrospective of manga magazines (which was on display at the museum during my visit), featuring original copies of Tokyo Punch, the first issues of Shonen Jump, Shonen Magazine, Lala, Hana to Yume and even first issues of the American editions of Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump.

The Kyoto International Manga Museum is very easy to get to from Kyoto Station -- it's just four subway stops away, and once you arrive at the Karasumaoike station, it's just a half-block walk to the museum entrance. The museum is open every day except Wednesdays (and it is open on select Wednesdays if they fall on school or national holidays), from 10 am to 8 pm. Regular admission is 500 yen, with extra fees to see the special exhibits. If you're in Kyoto, take a break from the temples and historical monuments and pay tribute to a shrine to Japanese comics creativity.

Next stop: Osaka, with visits to America-mura, Dotonburi and Den-Den Town.

Image credits: © Deb Aoki