First Look: Takehiko Inoue's New Manga Mural at Tokyo Museum

A few days ago on Twitter, @gottsuiiyan, (a.k.a. Ian, the translator / blogger of The Eastern Edge fame) made mention of an exhibit of artwork by manga artist Takehiko Inoue that would be displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo this month through March 2010.

Now, since I'm headed to Tokyo later this week, this news was very intriguing! Would this be an retrospective of artwork by the creator of Real, Slam Dunk and Vagabond? Would it be an exhibit of his color and black and white illustrations from Vagabond, as seen in the Sumi and Water artbooks? Or would it be new artwork created just for the museum?

The English version of the MOT website unfortunately doesn't have information about the Inoue artwork -- however, the Japanese version of their site does. And, thanks to yet another blogger/DJ, I got pointed to this page, which is a rough translation of a post and photos posted on Fukuhen, another Japanese blog, which got its info from Brutus magazine. In any case, this online journey led me to some photos and more details about Inoue-sensei's new mural at MOT, which I hope to see in person next week.

So apparently, Inoue-sensei took a few days off from his busy schedule to paint this HUGE mural depicting Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary swordsman and main character of Vagabond, his current series that is serialized in Morning magazine in Japan, and published by VIZ Media in the U.S. The mural (which was finished in three days, from sketch to completed painting) is now on display in the entrance hall of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo through March 28, 2010.

You can see more photos of Inoue-sensei in action and get a peek at the completed mural here (English) and here (Japanese).

Working on large scale artwork is nothing new to Inoue-sensei. In 2007, he created a large Vagabond-themed mural for Books Kinokuniya in New York City. You can see a photo gallery of Inoue in action, and read my interview with Inoue-sensei from that event.

He also created large-scale paintings for a series of TV commercials for Shiseido, a Japanese cosmetics company. (You can see the YouTube video of the making of one of these commercials.) More recently, he created Slam Dunk: 10 Days After, an original comic story drawn on chalkboards in several classrooms in a school in Kanagawa prefecture. You can see pictures of this exhibit at Halycon Realms, which has posted shots from the artbook documenting this unique manga art installation.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Vagabond Volume 30, the latest volume in this VIZ Signature series, is due to hit the store shelves on November 17. This volume finds Musashi still struggling to recover from the wounds suffered at his last major duel, while his friends and foes alike try to imagine what fate lies ahead for this injured swordsman.

I'll be headed to the museum to see this painting next week, but if you're in the Tokyo area, make plans to check out this painting in person. It's located in the lobby of the museum and doesn't require payment of an admission fee to view. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 am - 6:00 pm. MOT is located near the Kinshicho and Kiyosumi-Shirakawa stations in Tokyo, and is easily accessed by bus, train and subway.

Image credit: © Deb Aoki, © WORKAHOLICS,INC. & Yoshio Suzuki, © 1998-2009 I.T. Planning, Inc.