News
British Museum Manga Exhibition Opens Today
posted on by Andrew Osmond
The Manga exhibition at the British Museum in London begins today, and will run to August 26. Admission will be free to members of the museum; non-members can pre-book tickets (with particular dates and timeslots) at the above link. Adult tickets for non-members are £19.50, while concessions are available, including free entry to under-16s if accompanied by an adult, and a 2-for-1 ticket deal for students on Fridays.
The exhibition will be in the Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries, and will be divided into six zones. The first, ‘Understanding Manga’, focuses on how manga are drawn, produced and read, and the symbols of manga that form the grammar of the medium. The zone also looks at the role of manga's editors and publishers.
The second zone, ‘Power of Storytelling’, looks at visual storytelling in manga, including a reading space and digital experiences; these include a virtual version of Comic Takaoka, one of Japan's oldest continuing manga bookstores.
The third zone, ‘Seen and Unseen Worlds’, explores manga genres. The fourth zone looks at manga's role in society, including fandom, taking in Comiket events and cosplay.
The fifth zone consists of displays along the 70-metre-long walls of the Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries. these displays will show the original drawings of major artists and blowup versions of their famous characters. Among the artists represented will be Keiko Takemiya (Toward the Terra) and Katsuhiro Ōtomo, as well as a 17-metre Kabuki curtain from1880.
The last zone looks as manga's expanding boundaries, including avant-garde manga, media crossovers, gaming (focusing on Pokémon) and manga's influence internationally.
The exhibit will feature a bespoke mascot, a white rabbit character called named Mimi-chan, created by the manga artist Fumiyo Kōno (In This Corner of the World), which accompanies guests through the exhibition.
Other artists confirmed as being represented in the exhibition include Hokusai, Kyosai, Osamu Tezuka. Fujio Akatsuka, Akira Toriyama, Takehiko Inoue, Eiichiro Oda, Moto Hagio, Keiko Takemiya and Akiko Higashimura.
There will also be free lectures linked to the exhibit; information here.
The above image, showing the character Asirpa from the manga Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda, is used on the British Museum website to promote the event.
