Japanese Manga debuts at British Museum!

It seems Manga is getting a proper recognition around the world…A 250 year old British Museum will exhibit a manga called Munakata Kyoju.

As home to one of the world’s finest collections of historic artifacts, it seems fitting that the British Museum will feature a comic book series about a professor who studies ancient civilizations in its first exhibition of Japanese manga.

Starting on Nov. 5, a two-month long exhibition is showcasing original drawings from the series “Munakata Kyoju” (Professor Munakata), by Yukinobu Hoshino.

While manga has a growing fan base around the world, its legitimacy as an art form has sometimes been questioned.

But its endorsement as an important part of Japanese culture by the 250-year-old museum, which attracts 6 million visitors each year, should go a long way to answering its critics.

The “Professor Munakata” series appeared in 2004 in the Big Comic manga magazine published by Shogakukan Inc. It was also adapted into a TV series.

The protagonist, Professor Tadakusu Munakata, is an ethnologist who unravels mysteries surrounding ancient Japan by visiting archeological sites and places of legend across the country.

Hoshino, who lives in Sapporo, said he was amazed when Nicole Rousmaniere, a Japanologist who first conceived of the exhibition, showed up to make a pitch to him in August.

“She came all the way and told me that she wanted to put my drawings on display at the British Museum,” said Hoshino, 55. “I was stunned.”

Born in New York, Rousmaniere grew up watching Japanese anime. One of her favorite comic books, she said, was Osamu Tezuka’s “Astro Boy.”

After doing her bachelor’s degree and master’s in archaeology and a Ph.D in Japanese art history at Harvard, she taught Japanese art at the University of East Anglia in Britain. She also taught at the University of Tokyo’s graduate school as a visiting professor for three years from 2006.

It was during her stay in Tokyo that she came upon “Professor Munakata” after browsing comic books in a bookshop.

“I feel that Hoshino sensei’s drawings are compelling and beautifully executed,” she said. “I enjoy Osamu Tezuka and Shigeru Mizuki as well, but Yukinobu Hoshino is my favorite.”

Organizing an exhibition for the British Museum is nothing new to Rousmaniere.

She has previously worked with the museum on an exhibition of Jomon dogu, Japanese ceramic figures from the Jomon Pottery Culture, a period spanning between 8000 B.C. and 300 B.C.

Timothy Clark, 50, who heads the Japanese section in the museum’s Department of Asia, approved the project, calling it an experiment linking manga, which is popular in the United States and Europe, with the museum through archaeology.

Hoshino made his first visit to London in early October, taking about 30 drawings with him. The city did not, however, seem entirely unfamiliar, he said.

Hoshino’s inspiration for the protagonist of the series was Kumagusu Minakata (1867-1941), an ethnologist-cum-naturalist who worked as a researcher for the British Museum after he visited London in 1892.

“It felt like it was destiny,” Hoshino said.

During his stay in London, he executed two new drawings.

The exhibition features enlarged versions of Hoshino’s illustrations for the comic. Publisher Shogakukan also supplied 100 volumes of Big Comic for visitors to flip through, so they get a feel for manga magazines and their stories.

Hoshino is now working on a storyline for Professor Munakata’s latest adventure; the ethnologist will visit the British Museum to unravel mysteries from ancient Europe.

“I hope to launch the new series in spring,”

Source: Asahi

It is quite an interesting choice for a manga exhibit in a well known museum. I will not be surprised if We see more manga exhibits around the world…

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