The Kadokawa Culture Museum, Designed by Kengo Kuma
The building houses a spectacular library with shelves standing eight metres high and lined with almost 50,000 books.
© Kadokawa Culture Museum
Star architect Kengo Kuma set aside his material of choice, wood, to create the Kadokawa Culture Museum, situated in Tokorozawa Sakura Town in Saitama Prefecture, not far from Tokyo.
The museum, which stands 40 metres high and has a surface area of 12,000 square metres, was constructed from 20,000 granite stones assembled in an asymmetrical arrangement, which gives the building the appearance of a monolith in a work of science fiction. The aim of this cultural complex is to bring together artistic disciplines like literature, anime, natural history, and fine arts in one place.
Spotlight on popular culture
The museum contains a library dedicated to manga and short stories, a large exhibition space spread over more than 1000 square metres, an EJ (Entertainment Japan) animation museum devoted to anime culture with a wide range of books, films, games, and merchandise, and a curiosity cabinet. The most impressive part of the Kadokawa Culture Museum is, however, without doubt the library, with its shelves that stand eight metres high and contain 50,000 titles.
For those coming from Tokyo for the day, a visit to the museum can be followed by a trip to Musashino Jurin Park, which houses a permanent digital art exhibition by the teamLab collective: Resonating Life in the Acorn Forest.
More information about the Kadokawa Culture Museum can be found on its website.
© Kadokawa Culture Museum
© Kadokawa Culture Museum
© Kadokawa Culture Museum
© Kadokawa Culture Museum
© Kadokawa Culture Museum
TRENDING
-
‘Yukio Mishima: The Death of a Man’
A few months prior to his ritual suicide, the author was depicted in macabre photographs taken by Kishin Shinoyama.
-
Haruomi Hosono’s Music for 'Shoplifters', by Hirokazu Kore-eda
The director reflects on the ‘mature’ sound of Haruomi Hosono’s score and how it shaped his Palme d’Or-winning film.
-
Modernology, Kon Wajiro's Science of Everyday Observation
Makeup, beard shape, organisation of cupboards and meeting places: all of these details decipher 1920s Tokyoites.
-
Propaganda from the Russo-Japanese War
Artist Kobayashi Kiyochika created a series of prints depicting the Japanese army during the war that lasted from 1904 to 1905.
-
An Encounter with the Last Shamans in Japan
Sociologist Muriel Jolivet's book offers an analysis combined with a travelogue and interviews with these women with supernatural powers.
