#84 - Ishinomori Manga Museum

The Ishinomori Manga Museum (石の森萬画館), also known as the Ishinomaki Mangatten Museum, is a small manga museum in Ishinomaki (石巻), Miyagi Prefecture. It is dedicated to the works of Shotaro Ishinomori, who was born in the local area, and lived in Ishinomaki for a time.

Entrance to the museum.

The entrance tickets all had images on them.

Shotaro Ishinomori (石の森章太郎) was an influential manga artist who worked in the super-powered and transforming ranger manga genres. He created series like Cyborg 009, the first super-powered hero team created in Japan, and the Kamen Rider series, which is still ridiculously well known even today.

The museum is a big white egg!

The museum was opened in 2001 and is on "manga island" which is in a bay. The architecture is kind of unusual, and the whole building looks like a giant white egg. Inside the museum you can walk through and read about Ishinomori's works. There are images of some of the manga, as well as life-size models of some of the characters. There is a small movie theatre within the museum which shows special short films. When I visited, it was showing a short live-action Kamen Rider film.

Looking over the entrance foyer.

There is also a manga library on one of the floors, where you can browse the collection of Ishinomori works, and sit and read (if your Japanese is good enough). If you feel like you want to grab a snack, there is a small cafe nearby. Downstairs near the entrance is a tiny shop which sells books and gifts featuring some of the characters, usually different Kamen rider figures, or 009 and other cyborgs.

Coin lockers with different mange depicted.

Unfortunately, the city of Ishinomaki was badly hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Although the museum's building was still standing, it had been severely damaged by the tsunami and a lot of its collection was destroyed. Inside, you can see photographs of what it looked like after the tsunami hit. Luckily, the museum was re-opened in the following years.