The future world manga capital
Yokote’s museum devoted to the iconic Japanese comics eyes 300,000 original artworks
The Yokote Masuda Manga Museum has an ambition to gather the world’s biggest collection of original drawings and paintings from published manga.
The museum in Yokote’s Masuda district last month announced that it wants to increase its collection to 300,000 pieces. The city also unveiled a plan to promote sightseeing through combining the museum with the city’s traditional storage chambers, called uchigura.
Some of the ideas include using uchigura as venues for the exhibition of original manga artwork and discussion sessions with artists, as well as hosting an international manga convention.
In January last year the city announced renovation plans for the museum. The initial goal was to have 100,000 pieces in the collection, but that was subsequently expanded to keep pace with Tottori Prefecture, which has launched a campaign to become known as the “manga kingdom”. The prefecture is the childhood home of celebrated manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, who died in November.
It is often difficult for both publishers and artists to preserve original manga art due to space limitations, making it more important for museums to acquire and preserve the works.
The Yokote museum is part of the Masuda Fureai Plaza complex, which also houses a library and a community centre. Renovations call for these facilities to be moved to a municipal office building nearby so that the surface area of the museum can be expanded more than tenfold.
There will be a special exhibition room, a glass-walled archive and a cafe on the first floor, with five additional galleries elsewhere in the facility. The renovation will cost 500 million yen (Bt155 million) and the refurbished facility is scheduled to open in spring 2018.
The annual number of visitors peaked at about 138,000 in 1997 and currently hovers around 60,000. By comparison, in 2014 136,000 people visited the centre of Masuda, which features the Kura-no-Eki tourist information centre and major uchigura chambers.
The museum is about 700 metres from the city centre. By combining the attractions of uchigura and manga, the city hopes to bring more tourists to the museum.
Though the programme for the international manga convention has not yet been determined, the city apparently wants to hold the event in summer 2018. An exhibition of original artwork and artist talks will be key attractions.
“We’d like to make the most of the two different cultures of our city, which exist next to each another, and make this place an integrated tourist hub,” says Yokote Mayor Dai Takahashi.
CHAMBER OF COMICS
- The Yokote Masuda Manga Museum is open from 9 to 5 daily except Mondays and national holidays. Admission is free apart from special exhibitions.
- Find out more at www.Manga-Museum.com.
