Given the incredible influence that manga has had on popular culture, it is no surprise that the Saitama City Manga Museum has been welcoming visitors since 1966. Also known as the Manga Hall, it celebrates the life of the inventor of the genre. Rakuten Kitazawa spent his latter years in this house. Learn about the genesis of manga, created when Rakuten, a newspaper caricaturist, brought together techniques from Western, Chinese and Japanese painting to create a completely new art form.
Get to Manga Hall via the charming streets of Omiya Bonsai Village, a colony of bonsai growers who settled here in the 1920s and gave the whole area a very Japanese flavor.
Pause outside the manga museum to appreciate the pleasing traditional architecture and well-landscaped surroundings. Start with the permanent collection, which demonstrates how Rakuten’s style gradually evolved into what would eventually be called manga. Notice how the type of materials he used and the appearance of his faces changed over time.
Continue on to the special exhibitions, often featuring works by some of Japan’s biggest names, such as Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy.
Once you’ve whet your appetite, go to the second floor, where selections from a collection of 5,000 manga illustrations awaits. Catch up on some of the latest releases or read the great classics, including issues that are no longer available to the public.
On the way out, stamp a print on a memento item to prove you have been to the homeland of manga.
Saitama City Manga Museum lies north of downtown Saitama, not far from other tourist attractions of Omiya including Omiya Park and Omiya Bonsai Village. Take the subway from the Kitayono or Saitama Shintoshin Station in 20 minutes. Drive from downtown within 30 minutes or from Haneda Airport in a little over 1 hour. Parking in surrounding streets can be difficult to find, as the Bonsai Village is a tourist attraction in itself.
The museum is generally open from Tuesday to Sunday during regular business hours. There is no admission fee.
