Not far from Nijo Castle in Kyoto city center, is the International Manga Museum. Perhaps because it’s not located in a city naturally thought as the manga capital, it remains quite unknown from travelers in Japan. But there is another reason: this museum is quite far from the idyllic picture of the manga reader in the West: generally the pimply teenager addicted to Naruto.
Built as a large library on three floors, Kyoto Manga Museum is actually very quiet. It holds an endless collection of volumes: 300,000 manga and documents according to the official brochure. Its central point is an impressive piece of permanent exhibition on the history of manga.
From its origins until today, each library will offer hundreds of available volumes, classified by year of release. Like others, I got caught up and I had a good time reading a few volumes of Dragon Ball, remembering my youth. It’s even possible to take manga and go read them on the courtyard terrace, where Japanese children were doing their baseball training during our visit.
Obviously, all manga presented in this Museum are in original version, that’s of course Japanese. We can find, however, some comics. For Japanese non-speakers, explanations and guidance are provided in five languages, including English.
Entry fee to the Kyoto International Manga Museum is ¥800. Add ¥500 to visit the temporary exhibition.
A 10-year experience of traveling in Japan, Japanese culture and much more !
Pingback: Kyoto Castle: Nijo-jo