In Tokyo, there once was an apartment building called Tokiwaso where some greats of the Japanese manga industry once lived. Residents of Tokiwaso included such names as Osamu Tezuka, Fujiko F. Fujio, Fujiko Fujio Ⓐ, Fujio Akatsuka, and Shotaro Ishinomori, all creators who established the Japanese manga that we know and love today.
Osamu Tezuka was the first to move in, back in 1953, and the rest soon followed. The apartment building was demolished in 1982, but it was recreated as the Tokiwaso Manga Museum, a museum that you can visit to see how they lived and worked there in the 1950s and 1960s. There are photographs of Tokiwaso and the inhabitants as well as recreations of items they used based on testimonies by the mangaka and the people who knew them. They also hold special exhibits, with the current one being the " Devilman and Mazinger Z Double 50th Anniversary Exhibition" that will be open until July 30, 2023 that features specially drawn illustrations by the mangaka, Go Nagai, for the exhibit itself.
The permanent exhibits faithfully recreate the rooms where those young mangaka gathered, the shared spaces (bathroom and kitchen), and hallways as they were at the time. If you see the rooms where these giants of manga history lived when they were young, you might be able to see their series in a new light.
The facade and looks of the building was also recreated to look the way it did at the time. The walls and ceilings went through a weathering process and the rooms were made to look aged so you can enjoy all the small details of what it must’ve been like when the mangaka lived there.
Reservations are recommended to visit the museum, so if you want to make the most of your visit, please check the website for the museum’s updated operating hours and reservations.
Visitor Guide:
>Facility Name: Toshima City Tokiwaso Manga Museum
>Operating Hours: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM (Last admission: 5:30 PM)
>Closed: Mondays (or the next non-holiday if Monday is a national holiday), year-end and New Year holidays, exhibit-change periods, etc.
>Admission Fee: Required to enter all areas of the museum during special exhibitions.
>URL: [https://tokiwasomm.jp/en/] (https://tokiwasomm.jp/en/)
