The 14th Treasure TroveMANGA-ful
The future of dreams realized through "past manga"!?
2026/7/16(thu) ～
Venue
2F In front of executive director's office
Closures
Every Wednesday
Click here for details on the opening calendar
Online Ticket
*Same-day tickets can be purchased at the ticket vending machine at the entrance on the day of the
*You can purchase the admission ticket at the ticket vending machine when you enter the museum on the day you visit, or you can purchase it online in advance.
Content
The Kyoto International Manga Museum has an ongoing mini exhibition series called “Treasure Trove MANGA-ful”, curated by the museum’s Executive Director Aramata Hiroshi, with the aim of “tracing forgotten ancestors of manga to search the roots of contemporary manga”. The “MANGA-ful treasures”, as coined by Executive Director Aramata, include manga that are “as good as buried in the trash unless someone finds them”, and their value is that junk is intrinsically fun.
From the greetings of the exhibition by Director Aramata
I have a question for you all.
What do you predict Japan will be like in 100 years?
...It’s a difficult question. After all, we live in uncertain times. But Japanese people of the past could easily answer: "Humans will be able to travel to Mars," "The Japanese population will have reached 7.8 billion," "Women will serve as prime minister and university presidents," and so on.
Moreover, people believed in these kinds of dreamlike possibilities. Therefore, newspapers and novels, eager for that future to arrive, were able to enthusiastically "invent" future worlds that would still astonish us today, especially with the help of manga’s boundless imagination. These predictions are from a 1920 Japanese magazine feature titled "Japan 100 years from now." Back then, the future was imagined as something that would be realized through "great progress in civilization" brought about by science.
So, without further ado, this edition of "Treasure Trove MANGA-ful" is a special feature on the ‘future’ as envisioned in past manga, to reclaim our sense of the future!
The internet? Drones? Humanoid robots? Longevity drugs and 3D printers? 21st century inventions of the had already been predicted 100 years ago. We can only applaud the 21st century manga artists who were ahead of their time.
In fact, in Japan in 1881 (Meiji 14), the establishment of a parliament in which ordinary people could participate in politics was promised to the people, marking the beginning of the future. But then, a major challenge arose in that the general public had to acquire the culture and education necessary to take part in politics. So, newspapers and magazines started publishing many articles that offered a preview of the future lifestyles that science would create.
I want you to see these visions of the future, brimming with dreams. These are not images of "it would be nice if it were like this," but rather, images filled with confidence that "it will be like this." Let our museum's treasured manga that predicted the future remind you of these hopes and dreams!
Kyoto International Manga Museum / “Treasure Trove MANGA-ful” Executive Director, Aramata Hiroshi
Organizers: Kyoto International Manga Museum / Kyoto Seika University International Manga Research Center
* Please note that the schedule and contents are subject to change.
