[Art Exhibition 2024 #36] Toshio Suzuki and Ghibli Exhibition at Yokosuka Museum of Art

Dates: March 20 (Wed) – June 18 (Wed), 2024

I drove out to Yokosuka to see the 'Exhibition of Astonishingly Detailed Expressions' but as I approached the museum, the number of people increased and it was quite bustling.
I wondered why people with an atmosphere I don't usually encounter at art museums were at a museum in such a remote place, and then I realized a Ghibli-related project was being held at the same time.

Oh, I didn't know that.

I felt apologetic and humble, bowing my head as if to say, 'Sorry, I'm here for this more modest exhibition,' as I headed toward the 'other exhibition'.

After finishing the 'other exhibition' and thinking about heading home, a staff member called out to me, 'There are spots available for the Ghibli exhibition right now!' (The Ghibli exhibition required advance reservations).

Actually, I have only seen a few early Ghibli films. I like Nausicaä and Laputa, but... well, I don't have any particularly strong attachment to them since that's the extent of my knowledge.
But since I had come all the way to Yokosuka, I decided to go in with a light heart, thinking I might as well take a look.

As it turned out, it was very interesting.

I had assumed it was just another typical promotional blockbuster project tied to a TV station, but the history of Showa-Heisei anime and the struggles of animators and creators were crafted with great care, and many valuable historical materials were on display, so I found myself engrossed in it.

The recreation of the Showa-era room where Mr. Suzuki grew up and the explanations of the books that influenced him were of great interest to me as a Showa enthusiast. Learning about the stories of trial and error and the pains of creation hidden behind various anime (including Ghibli) that I myself was influenced by to some extent in my childhood made me want to watch them again from an adult perspective.
This part of the exhibition was off-limits for photography, so I have no pictures, but it was a very well-presented exhibition.

Photography is allowed in the second half.
The study recreation corner also features the complete collection of Osamu Tezuka's manga.
I had thought since childhood that these characteristic, bleak black-and-white spines, combined with the frame design on the covers, looked like a funeral and were scary.
The single point of red is the finishing touch that makes it even scarier.
For those reasons, I found them unapproachable for a while, but when I read them in the upper grades of elementary school, I found them interesting and became completely hooked, eventually reading almost all of them by borrowing them from the library.

I had liked Fujiko Fujio since I was little, but after properly discovering Osamu Tezuka in the upper grades of elementary school, 'Phoenix' became one of my bible manga alongside 'Manga Michi' (The Road to Manga).
In 1990, the year after Osamu Tezuka passed away, a memorial exhibition was held at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and that was the first museum experience I had of my own volition since I became aware of the world.
I was in my second year of junior high at the time. Nostalgic.

Mr. Suzuki's volume of input is simply extraordinary, and when I think that that worldview is only a small fraction of all this, the episode from 'Manga Michi' comes to mind, where the two protagonists visit Osamu Tezuka and are shocked to learn that he draws 1,000 pages to create a 400-page manga.

Robocon was broadcast when Mr. Suzuki was about 25 or 26, so there is a sense of chronological inconsistency.
Is it just placed there to create an atmosphere, or is it something he actually collected as some kind of reference material?

Shuji Terayama is a symbolic figure of the subculture intellectuals of that time, so his name always comes up in projects like this.
Since our generations are quite different, I shouldn't have been directly influenced by him much, but I suppose I must have been heavily influenced indirectly.

Official exhibition catalog 4,620 yen

It was quite expensive for this type of catalog, but as someone who makes it a principle to basically buy the catalog for every exhibition I visit, I had no choice but to buy it.
(I would have been more convinced to buy it if it were signed... mumble mumble)

A small path standing quietly at the edge of the premises.

This is actually a work by Isamu Wakabayashi, but I wonder how many people who walked through here today knew that.
In the first place, I wonder how many people even know who Isamu Wakabayashi is.

Last year, the "FY2023 2nd Collection Exhibition Special Feature: 20 Years After His Death, Isamu Wakabayashi" was held here at the Yokosuka Museum of Art.
There, the production plans and drawings for this work, which was installed in 2006, as well as the circumstances behind its installation here, were carefully exhibited.

Compared to photos from the time of installation, one can see significant changes in the surrounding environment, but as it has been eroded by trees over time, its presence has not been lost; rather, seeing the strength with which it incorporates the landscape into part of the work reminded me of Ta Prohm at the Angkor ruins in Cambodia.

However, it is hard to believe that it has already been over 20 years since he passed away; time really flies.

Thinking about such things, I walked through this small path and left the museum.

[Art Exhibition 2024] Summary Magazine ↓