Manga Museum (Kyoto)

Kyoto, Japan. The Kyoto International Manga Museum is a manga collection that is browsable as a public library. In that context, varied temporary exhibitions represent all aspects of the Art. The boundary between the stacks and exhibition is confusing, but in this case maybe there shouldn't be any boundary. Perhaps it's also appropriate that visitors enter through a (Manga) store (?), usually a museum taboo.

This museum is incredibly rich & interesting. For starters, visitor behavior. Reading Manga, intensely! On the fake lawn, in the corridors, on every bench, the stairs, in the cozy youngest reading room... All of the readers are SO focused, they seem oblivious to everything and everyone around them.

A fabulous collection of Exhibition posters, since their opening in 2006, is displayed along the various corridor ceilings, viewed from below.

There are so many different & passionate threads running through this meandering museum. Manga readers, who are inspired to draw (based on their favorite Manga), are formally honored on corridor walls. I saw one young visitor who couldn't wait to get home (or back to the hotel room).

The Museum is (gradually) honoring Manga artists by making plastic casts of their hands. There was a truly reverent atmosphere in this gallery.

The main exhibition is nested in a central upstairs room with stacks surrounding it. All exhibitions are bilingual in Japanese and English. The chronological order of panels, and panel content, reads from right to left. 

There are other exhibition areas, that focus on specific artists. The museum uses a simple modular metal framework based on about 1' and 1 1/2'. Vertical for signage and monitor towers, and horizontal for overhead entry portal signage, direct overhead book display books, and low or high book vitrines.

This is an impressive flip book design. Powder coated open book shape, raised on a pedestal, with a thick white "pages" area added to give support and add weight to the book. The flippable pages are bolted into the binding, as usual.

In this corridor the exhibition poster, with the edge curled on the floor, repeats farther down on the left, but in the narrow hallway, it's unreadable as you pass. 

There is a charming demo room for kids, with various drawing books laying around the space. It appears that they have guest presenters here.

The interactive animation station and mediated station with a visiting artist, are very popular.

On the way out, a bank of vending toys

The museum worked with a composer to create custom ambient music that plays continually throughout the space. They describe it as relaxing, but It gets annoying after awhile.