Ghibli Museum, MitakaInokashira Park, Mitaka
The Studio of Yuriko Yamawaki: Treasure from an Artist's Clutter
Recreation of illustrator Yuriko Yamawaki's studio, exploring her picture-book collaborations with Rieko Nakagawa and her influence on Hayao Miyazaki.
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You walk into a room where letters are stacked on and around the desk. Yuriko Yamawaki wrote a great many, and the drawings she tucked into letters and New Year's cards are shown alongside her book work, more than 680 works in all.
Yamawaki drew Guri and Gura, the field mice in the picture books written by her sister, Rieko Nakagawa. Museum director Kazuki Anzai saw this workroom with Hayao Miyazaki and wanted to show it for 25 years. Rebuilding it took about a year: palettes, sketchbooks, around 2,000 books on the shelves, her embroidery and handmade picture boxes. The works are reproductions, for conservation. That year of museum work went into one woman's clutter, down to her handmade dolls and a shed snake skin.
Come for the room and how she worked, not for framed originals. Entry is the standard museum ticket (¥1,000 for adults), sold only in advance on Lawson Ticket for a set date and time, with each month's tickets released on the 10th.
Look for
The desk under the letters
Look for the stacks of letters on and around her desk, next to the palettes and tools she painted with.
The wall of books
About 2,000 books line the shelves, from titles she read as a child to roughly 100 foreign-language originals.
Drawings from the post
Everyday drawings she put into letters and New Year's cards hang among the more than 680 works on show.
Picture boxes and embroidery
Her handmade picture boxes, which she liked to display, sit with her embroidery and colouring pages she drew for her grandchildren.
The things she kept
Among her collection are handmade dolls, newspaper clippings and a shed snake skin.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want original artwork: the works on display are reproductions, for conservation.
With kids
The show is part of the general museum ticket: ¥400 for ages 7 to 12, ¥100 for ages 4 to 6, and free under 4.
Also at Ghibli Museum, Mitaka
On now nearby
Image credits
4
- The Beauty of Coolness: Edo-Tokyo Museum Glass Craft CollectionCourtesy of Edo-Tokyo Museum
- Suikoden: The Water Margin, Outlaws of the MarshCourtesy of Tokyo Station Gallery
- Masterpieces from the Itsuo Art Museum Collection: Buson, Go Shun, and the Art of TeaCourtesy of Suntory Museum of Art
- Ghibli Museum, MitakaMichael Reeve, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0