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Apr 8, 2021

Ishinomori's Mangattan and the Limitlessness of Manga

    One of the most interesting places in Ishinomaki and arguably Miyagi as a whole is the manga museum also known in English as Mangattan, a strange building sitting on its own island and looking a bit like a space ship. When I visited the museum for the first time in February of 2021, I had no idea who the man was and had only heard of the Cyborg series due to the colorful train that runs as part of the local trains from Sendai to Ishinomaki on the Senseki line.

Ishinomori's Mangattan and the Limitlessness of Manga photo
All aboard the Mangattan Liner to Ishinomaki!

    I'm not the biggest manga or anime otaku and barely get a chance to read or watch anything for myself these days. When I started getting into anime in the early 2000s, my main interest was in works made within the previous five years or so. The style I can see in the linework on the trains reminds always reminded me of Astroboy and similar works that always looked too old in style to possibly be interesting to me, or at least that was what I thought of this style in college. Finally in 2021 I decided to give this place a try, even if only to entertain my kid for an afternoon. The previously mentioned ship-shaped building is home to a collection of items, media, and experiences celebrating the works of Shotaro Ishinomori, a man originally born in the nearby city of Tome and raised in the area that would eventually be known as Ishinomaki, all within Miyagi prefecture.


Ishinomori's Mangattan and the Limitlessness of Manga photo
Visitors from Planet Manga bid you welcome! That was actually the idea.

    It turns out that there are good reasons for Cyborg 009's artwork to remind me of Astroboy and for all of this to feel old. After publishing a work of his own in 1954, Ishinomori moved to Tokyo to work as an assistant to the Godfather of Manga himself, Osamu Tezuka. There the Miyagi-native would wind up working on Astroboy among other important works during his time with Tezuka. Eventually he went on to create Cyborg 009 and Kamen Rider as well as the Super Sentai series which eventually became the Power Rangers.

Ishinomori's Mangattan and the Limitlessness of Manga photo

    The English language website for the manga museum goes into detail about the kanji used for the word manga in Ishinomori's "Manga Declaration" which is a document he wrote in 1989, explaining his belief that manga as an artform is essentially limitless. This is why he uses the kaniji 萬(man, meaning ten thousand or various) for the first character in manga instead of the more standard 漫. While the standard kanji makes the same sound, the meanings outside of animated or cartoonish are less pleasant in general.

Ishinomori's Mangattan and the Limitlessness of Manga photo
You can even shake the man's hand! Or a replica anyway.

    The building itself was designed by Mr Ishinomori in the mid 1990s and in interviews, he explained that he wanted the place to be enjoyable for people of any age, representing Japanese manga culture to the world. He even had plans to stop by regularly after it was completed as he was planning to live on nearby Tashirojima, better known now for its feline residents.

Ishinomori's Mangattan and the Limitlessness of Manga photo
The details in this place really make it special, like the villain's cape being on the other side of the glass.

    Unfortunately, Mr Ishinomori would never see his dreams of showing the world the beauty of manga through his manga museum realized. He succumbed to stomach cancer at the age of sixty in 1998. The museum would be completed and opened in 2001 thanks to the ongoing efforts of his devoted fans and neighbors.

Ten years later it would be destroyed in the tsunami caused by the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011. A wave of six and a half meters swept through the building and took the contents of the first floor out to sea. Luckily, this was after the staff had evacuated all guests and headed inland and up hill themselves. It would take a little over a year and a half to clean up and rebuild what was lost. In November of 2012, it opened again and had stayed in operation ever since.


Ishinomori's Mangattan and the Limitlessness of Manga photo
    
While vising the museum, we made time to watch a short film in the movie theater and I was thrilled to find that it included English subtitles. The title of the piece was 龍神沼  (Ryuujin Numa translated as Dragon God Pond) and is based on a single volume book of manga Mr. Ishinomori produced between 1957 and 1964 according to wikipedia. Anyone who loves lakes and dragon stories will likely enjoy this one, though I also found it captivating as a Tohoku resident. In the story, a dragon god is said to inhabit a beautiful lake. If the story didn't sell it, the visuals would do the job of reassuring anyone who had ever seen Katanuma Lake (潟沼 near Naruko, Miyagi) that Mr Ishinomori had been there too. 

    I've never been inspired by a place and then watched an anime inspired by the same place before. To convey that so clearly despite the time and cultural differences really provides a great example of how true Ishinomori's ideas regarding the limitlessness of manga and the animation it inspires really are. 

JTsu

JTsu

A working mom/writer/teacher explores her surroundings in Miyagi-ken and Tohoku, enjoying the fun, quirky, and family friendly options the area has to offer.


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