iBrooklyn MuseumProspect Heights, Brooklyn
Manga Before Manga: Japanese Art from the Collection
Twenty-one works from the collection trace 900 years of Japanese narrative imagery behind modern manga; a companion to Art of Manga.
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The oldest piece is a 15th-century handscroll, Tale of the Wisteria Robe, painted in ink on mica-flecked paper and more than 33 feet long. The museum points to its graphic devices as forerunners of the speech bubble.
It is a Spotlight of 21 collection works in the first-floor Great Hall, which it shares with Art of Manga, and it is there as that show's backstory. You move from scroll to woodblock prints, illustrated books, a porcelain lion and an enamel plate, past heroes, lovers and supernatural beings. Kuniyoshi's boy wrestles a giant carp under a waterfall, and an 1887 Kawanabe Kyōsai book already has manga in its title. The Fujin plate has a Manhattan past: Herter Brothers fitted it into John Sloane's Fifth Avenue house in 1882.
It is small, so pair it with Art of Manga on one visit. Entry is included in general admission, pay what you can (suggested $20, free for 19 and under), Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm, through January 31.
Look for
Tale of the Wisteria Robe
A 15th-century handscroll in ink on mica-flecked paper, over 33 feet long, whose graphic devices the museum reads as early speech bubbles.
Kuniyoshi's Sakata Kaidōmaru
A well-muscled boy wrestles a giant carp under a waterfall, drawn with a see-through stream of water and scattering white spray.
The Fujin plate
Look for the wind god slinging a heavy bag of wind over his shoulders against swirling air, above birds and leaves on a turquoise ground.
Yoshitoshi's Matsunaga Hisahide
A warrior facing certain death throws down the treasured tea bowl his enemy wanted, so that nobody gets it.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You want manga itself: these are 21 older prints, books and objects, not comic art.
With kids
Entry is free for anyone 19 and under, because the show is included in general admission.
Also at Brooklyn Museum
On now nearby
Image credits
5
- Manga Before Manga: Japanese Art from the CollectionCourtesy of Brooklyn Museum
- Splendido, As Seen by Chris RhodesCourtesy of Aperture
- Pierre Huyghe: UUmweltCourtesy of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
- Brice Marden: I Am Plane ImageArtwork © 2026 Estate of Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Owen Conway
- Brooklyn MuseumJim Henderson via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain