The Toshima Ward Office in Tokyo on July 7 announced plans to reconstruct Tokiwa-so, known as the apartment building where leading Japanese cartoonists including Osamu Tezuka lived. The new Tokiwa-so will be a museum for manga and anime in the Minami-Nagasaki area of the ward, scheduled to open in March 2020.
“I hope the museum will become a place for young people to get to know Japan’s manga culture,” Toshima Mayor Yukio Takano said during a press conference.
Tokiwa-so was demolished in 1982 due to its deterioration. The museum will be located in Minami-Nagasaki Hanasaki Park, with construction expected to cost 200 million yen to 300 million yen (US$1.9 million to $2.87 million) for the 420-square-metre, two-story, steel-framed building. The exterior will reproduce the original Tokiwa-so as much as possible.
The ward office plans to establish a review conference this month chaired by cartoonist Machiko Satonaka, 68, to discuss the exhibition contents. Construction will start in fiscal 2018, with the building scheduled for completion in December 2019.
“We’d like to exhibit manuscript copies by cartoonists who lived in Tokiwa-so, including Tezuka and Fujio Akatsuka,” said Satonaka, who attended the press conference with Takano. “I’m thrilled and excited.”
Takano enthusiastically added: “We have big goals for the museum to foster manga and anime culture. We’d like to spread the wonderful manga culture.”
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