Yokote Masuda Manga Museum, Comics museum in Yokote, Japan
The Yokote Masuda Manga Museum is a comics museum in Yokote, in Akita Prefecture, Japan. It holds an exceptionally large number of original manuscript pages and drawings from both Japanese and international artists.
The museum opened in 1995, becoming the first institution in Japan dedicated to preserving and displaying original manga works. Its founding helped shift the way manga was seen, moving it from popular entertainment toward recognized art.
The museum displays works from more than a hundred artists based in Japan and elsewhere. This collection shows how manga has become recognized as an art form that connects people across different cultures.
The museum is about an eight-minute walk from Masuda-Kuraneo bus station. Going in the morning tends to give you more space to move through the galleries without crowds.
The museum holds a large collection of original drawings by Takao Yaguchi, a manga artist from Yokote who created the fishing-themed series Tsurikichi Sanpei. Seeing his rough sketches and corrections on the original pages gives a rare look at how a manga story is actually built.
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