Kyoto International Manga Museum
Feb 23rd, 2007 by Ad Blankestijn
The Kyoto International Manga Museum rides the high tide of interest in Japanese popular culture, and is housed in a beautiful old school building, but curious visitors will not find much to see inside. Unless you want to observe how blissfully quiet kids can become when they sit reading manga books…
The walls of the long corridors and also some rooms in the museum are lined with bookcases containing manga from a former public manga library, and visitors can sit down to read them. You can see even more manga by descending to the cellar, where a huge manga storeroom can be observed through glass. Rows and rows of manga books are the main standing exhibit of this museum.
The nagging question is: is that enough to make a museum? If storing manga makes a manga museum, then every public library is a literature museum!
[International Manga Museum, Kyoto - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
A historical overview is not completely lacking, although it is very modest. When you go up to the second floor, there is a small room with some historical items on display, such as the first manga published in Japan. You also receive an English pamphlet with the history of manga in Japan.
I would have preferred a larger, more detailed and more dramatic presentation. Manga being the graphic medium they are, could not much more have been done?
For example…
- Why not have information (pictures, profiles) of manga authors on display, and story boards introducing their most famous works?
- Why not include anime and show some films or clips?
- What about computer games based on manga?
- Why not include plastic figures and other spin-offs?
- What about the phenomenon of cosplay?
- Otaku?
- Dojinshi and other subgenres?
- The influence of manga and anime on art, as with Murakami Takashi?
- And, as the museum calls itself “international,” what about something in a structured way about the influence of manga in Asia, the US and Europe?
As it now stands, reading the article on manga in Wikipedia is more informative than a visit to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. In other words (although I may be blaming the museum for something it never set out to do in the first place): this museum is a sadly missed chance. A manga museum should include all of the above points, and on top of that be dynamic, interactive and colorful!
Address: Karasuma-Oike, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto
Tel: 075-254-7414
Access: Near Karasuma-Oike St on the Karasuma Lines and Tozai Lines of the Kyoto Municipal Subway.
