Osamu Tezuka* Manga Museum Takarazuka City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan page 1 of 2

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museum brochure cover Takarazuka Municipal - Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum guide map *Reproduced under "fair use" provision of U.S. copyright law, Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107, for nonprofit educational purposes.

*Western name order Photos of the museum were taken in 2004 and 2006. The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum 7-65 Mukogawa-cho, Takarazuka, Hyogo, JAPAN Tel. 0797-81-2970, Fax 0797-81-3660 Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed on Wednesdays. (10 min. walk from JR Takarazuka Station) The Osamu* Tezuka Manga Museum was dedicated on April 25, 1994, in the city of Takarazuka where he grew up. The museum honors the cartoonist (b. November 3, 1928-d. February 9, 1989) referred to by many as the Manga no Kamisama (God of Manga) (Amano, Manga Design, p. 346). He created over 500 titles and drew almost 150,000 pages of comics in his lifetime, and he had his own animation studio Mushi Productions (later replaced by Tezuka Productions) (source: "The Art of Osamu Tezuka" booklet, © 1994 Tezuka Productions). It's almost hard to believe that he earned his doctorate in medicine and was licensed to be a physician. Probably Osamu Tezuka's best known character is Astro Boy, first introduced to Americans through a televised animation broadcast in 1963 (Schodt, Dreamland Japan, p. 311). The B&W animation was Japan's first TV animation series (Schodt, p. 237). You can comfortably browse the museum in two hours or less. If you have the time, you might want to catch a show by the Takarazuka Revue at the Grand Theater across the street from the museum. The Takarazuka Revue is a unique theatre where women perform both the male and female roles. Osamu Tezuka's mother was a big fan of the theatre, and he once worked for the theatre's in-house magazine. Osamu Tezuka's manga Ribon no Kishi (Princess Knight) — considered a forerunner of modern shoujo (girls) manga — was inspired by his experiences with the Takarazuka Revue. *His pen name comes from a beetle called osamushi in Japanese (source: The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum brochure). LINKS Tezuka Osamu World official Web site. http://en.tezuka.co.jp/tomm/index.html Takarazuka City Directory 2006: Tezuka Osamu World. http://www.city.takarazuka.hyogo.jp/le_html/kouhou/sitefiles/en/03teduka.html Kansai Digital Archives: Tezuka Osamu Memorial Museum. http://www.kiis.or.jp/kansaida/takarazuka/takarazuka04-e.html Lorenzo Conti's fan site. http://www.kiis.or.jp/kansaida/takarazuka/takarazuka04-e.html

10th anniversary for Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum (2004) Exhibit ran July 1 - October 26, 2004. The exhibit focused on how Tezuka's strong childhood curiosity contributed to the creativity of his later work.		60th anniversary of Osamu Tezuka's comic debut* (2006) *Debuted in 1946 with a four-panel comic called "Ma-chan's Diary" for a newspaper while in medical school. Exhibit ran March 2 - July 11, 2006		Astro Boy and Osamu Tezuka visit Tokyo International Anime Fair, March 23-26, 2006. Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd., had a booth there.
You can see the glass dome — "Our Earth of Glass" — peeking out from the top.		Approaching the museum from the Takarazuka Revue's Grand Theater.		Hi no Tori (Phoenix*) monument *The manga was a lifelong project.	character handprints & footprints by the Phoenix monument
Astro Boy welcomes visitors at the entrance. floor tile mosaic of Osamu Tezuka	Phoenix messenger capsule looking toward the entrance	ceiling skylight permanent exhibit time capsules		permanent exhibit time capsules
permanent exhibit time capsules		permanent exhibit time capsules		Atom Vision Theater ceiling

Photos copyright © 2004, 2006 Kat Avila. All rights reserved.