Meiji University celebrates manga heritage

November 5th, 2009 by Felicity

Manga has long been viewed as a throwaway art form

Manga has long been viewed as a throwaway art form

Though former Prime Minister Taro Aso’s ambitious plan for a national media arts center to promote manga and anime has been scrapped by the incumbent government, fans of the art form will welcome the news that the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures opened at Meiji University in Ochanomizu last weekend. The library is a forerunner of a much more ambitious project to house the world’s largest manga collection, which is slated to open in 2014 as part of the university’s School of Japanese Global Studies course. Visitors to the library can browse an impressive collection that includes rare series from the 1960s. (Read all about the library in The Japan Times.)

While there are many commercial manga kissaten (coffee shops for reading manga) in Japan with extensive manga collections, public libraries shy away from comprehensive collections of comic books. My own local library in Chuo Ward, despite being rather large, only has a disappointingly slim number of Osamu Tezuka classics. Before the Yonezawa Library opened in Tokyo, the only other decent public collection available was in Kyoto at the Kyoto International Manga Museum, which opened three years ago.

The recent change in attitude has been brought about by increasing international interest in manga as an art form. Somewhat similar to the way the value of ukiyo-e was reassessed by Japan when Western collectors began buying up the woodblock prints, driving up prices and local interest in a commercial art form that had been thought of as disposable. While the sheer variety of manga produced makes the idea of having a comprehensive collection in any one place almost impossible to contemplate, a look at this video of plans for the new library is pretty impressive, promising to preserve a pretty huge chunk of Japan’s manga heritage.

Got a  favorite manga cafe? Let us know what makes its collection special.

Archive and share
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Ping.fm
  • Technorati
  • Fark
  • LinkedIn

Leave a Reply

Read our terms & conditions before posting a comment.

RSS

Recent Posts

  • New faces down on the farm

    Whether it’s in a country field or on a high-rise rooftop, the self-sufficiency benefits of farming are inspiring more Japanese to till the soil.

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • Moisturize me

    As face-drying winter winds approach, Bandai and Fancl come to the rescue with a portable skin analyzer.

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • Kidrobots on the block at Tokyo Designers Week

    For Tokyo Designers Week, customized Kidrobot figurines go up for auction, with proceeds going to CARE.

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • An artsy Octoberfest weekend in Tokyo

    This may be Tokyo Design Week, but there are a number of interesting art events worth your time as well.

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • A peek inside an otaku’s inner sanctum

    Imperial otaku Danny Choo invited geek homies to show off their inner sanctums and it all comes together for a worldwide room-viewing in “Otacool.”

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • Ka-ching and bling for Hello Kitty at 35

    The queen of kawaii, Hello Kitty, celebrates her 35th birthday this year with global events, new products and a bit of bling.

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • A mouthful of tech marketing

    All the big players in personal computing have landed in Japan to do battle, using conventional and unusual tactics. Who will come out on top?

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • Moving portraiture by Julian Opie

    If you see the influence of Japanese art, both traditional and contemporary, in the work of Julian Opie, showing at Scai Bathhouse till Nov. 14, you’ve got a good eye.

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • Transformers down to desktop proportions

    To coincide with the release of “Transformers Revenge” on DVD in December, we get mice and USB which, of course, are actually robots in disguise.

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn
  • Bento packaged for the global spotlight

    Boxed lunches have been around for centuries in Japan, but now the rest of the world is seeing the beauty and economic good sense of bento.

    Archive and share
    • Digg
    • del.icio.us
    • Facebook
    • Google Bookmarks
    • Reddit
    • StumbleUpon
    • Twitter
    • Yahoo! Buzz
    • Ping.fm
    • Technorati
    • Fark
    • LinkedIn

Our Users Say

  • Tom: I think the white one is still available… http://www.japantrendshop.com/ otamatone-sound-toy-p-726.h...
  • Juergen Specht: Time to chime in! As a good friend of Kuroneko, I totally agree with his concerns…just 2 weeks...
  • Jason: Hi Michael. Not sure if my source goes by “Kuroneko,” but for what it’s worth, he...
  • Jason: Hi Jason. Congratulations! Would love to hear how it is received!
  • Michael John Grist: I think it’s likely your source is a guy who goes by the name ‘kuroneko’ and I...