In the basement of the manga museum, there are several thousand manga-related items that are difficult to acquire nowadays, such as woodblock prints from Edo period and satire cartoon magazines from Meiji and Taisho periods. Did you know about this?
These items were collected by Shimizu Isao, an independent researcher of manga history and satire drawings. During several decades, he collected them by himself with the belief that they are precious historical items connected to contemporary manga.
This Shimizu Isao passed away on March 2nd, 2021, at the age of 81.
He was involved with the manga museum even before its opening in 2006. To raise the value of the manga museum as an institution for archiving, he not only handed over his collections but also supported the museum as a research adviser for a long time.
The approximately 100 books on the 3rd floor of the museum were written by Shimizu, for manga research. Both in quality and quantity, it is such an unmatched achievement. We have no doubt that manga research in the present day would not exist without his collections and research results.
We did not expect that supervising the exhibition “GIGA MANGA” was the last major project he would do with us. Even in the sadness of losing him, the exhibition, with over 300 items from the “Shimizu Collection” of the museum, is still making its way around Japan, receiving numerous favorable comments.
Dear Shimizu Isao, thank you very much for your support. We pray that your soul rest in peace.
Mar 9, 2021
Kyoto International Manga Museum
Shimizu Isao (1939-2021)
Born in Tokyo. After working at a publishing company, he started to work as a writer. Shimizu also held several posts such as a specialized researcher of Kawasaki City Museum, professor at Teikyo Heisei University, trustee of Japan Society for Studies in Cartoons and Comics, and research adviser at Kyoto International Manga Museum. Shimizu received the Takahashi Kunitaro Award (currently, the Nippo-Françaises Prix Culturel) for his research on Georges Ferdinand Bigot and the Japan Cartoonists Association Special Award and Special Achievement Award of Japan Media Arts Festival for his historical research on early-modern Japanese manga.
Pictures from;
top: April 29, 2007. MM continuous lecture
bottom: September 25, 2015. 7th International Scholarly Conference “Comicology: Probing Practical Scholarship”
