Kinnikuman Museum in Japan Marks 1st Anniversary; Story Writer of Kinnikuman Mangaka Duo Speaks at Celebratory Event
The Kinnikuman Museum in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture
NUMAZU, Shizuoka — The Kinnikuman Museum in Numazu — now a hot spot for fans of the popular manga — held an event on May 3 to celebrate its first anniversary.
The museum, located in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, has welcomed about 100,000 visitors from Japan and abroad since it opened in April 2024.
Takashi Shimada, the story writer of the mangaka duo Yudetamago that created Kinnikuman, and Minowaman DZ, a professional wrestler who serves as the museum's director, appeared at the talk event to commemorate the anniversary.
In front of about 300 fans, Shimada shared behind-the-scenes anecdotes about creating the manga, and Minowaman DZ spoke on the challenges of being a museum director.
The talks were followed by a raffle, in which a 7-year-old boy from Akiruno, Tokyo, won a T-shirt signed by the two speakers.
'I won an amazing prize on my first visit to the museum!' the boy said.
Shimada said: 'This is far more than I expected, and I'm surprised. We will further expand the exhibits so that more fans will come to the museum and have a good time.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yomiuri Shimbun
3 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan's Dark Fantasy Manga ‘Tougen Anki' Adapted into Anime; Descendants of ‘Momotaro,' Demons Clash in Evil vs. Evil Story
Inspired by the famous Japanese folktale 'Momotaro,' the anime 'Tougen Anki,' currently airing on the Nippon TV network, tells the story of life-and-death combat between descendants of oni (demons) and Momotaro, the folktale hero. 'Tougen Anki' is a dark battle fantasy, rather than a fairy tale about good versus evil, with Shiki Ichinose, a young boy of oni lineage, as its protagonist. The Yomiuri Shimbun interviewed Kazuki Ura, Shiki's voice actor, and manga artist Yura Urushibara, who created 'Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood,' on which the new show is based. In the folktale 'Momotaro,' the title character is born from a giant peach and goes out to conquer oni with a dog, a monkey and a pheasant. In the world of 'Tougen Anki,' the descendants of oni and Momotaro have been locked in battle for thousands of years. They each have created their own organizations: the Oni Agency and the Momotaro lives as an ordinary human until one day he is attacked by the Momotaro Agency and learns his own true, fierce nature. The Momotaro Agency hunts the oni, who flee and stay in seclusion, fearing for their lives. 'Since the oni are the lead characters, the [hero and villain] roles are reversed [from the folktale], making it a completely new story,' Ura said. 'And it develops in a classic, widely loved way of the weak standing up against the strong. I also live by helping the weak against the powerful.' 'He's a bad boy and a doofus — someone who acts on what he feels, not on what he thinks. He seems rough on the surface, but I hope I have been able to portray him in an engaging way, while maintaining his purity,' Ura said of Shiki and how he took on the role. There are scenes in which Shiki takes control of the oni blood in his body and harnesses his powers to materialize weapons, such as firearms. To convincingly play out these scenes, Ura experimented with various ideas, such as holding a two-liter plastic bottle of water and feeling its weight before recording.'He's very pure,' Ura said of Shiki's personality. 'He takes and accepts things head-on. He even has no problem calling someone he hates 'amazing.' He inspires me to live that way, too.' Shiki enrolls at Rasetsu Academy, a school that trains oni. His life at the academy, where we see him working hard alongside his cool teacher and eccentric classmates while throwing himself into battling the Momotaro, is one of the most gripping elements of the series. Evil versus evil Serialized in the Weekly Shonen Champion manga magazine published by Akita Publishing Co. since 2020, the original manga is very popular. It spans 25 tankobon volumes so far, with over 4 million copies printed. The Momotaro descendants are by no means depicted as heroes. Tsubakiri Momomiya and other characters of the Momotaro Agency do not regard oni descendants as human beings, sometimes taking their lives in appallingly brutal ways.'Since they believe they stand on the side of justice, they have no sense of brutality,' Urushibara said. However, not all the characters are cruel — there are those with their own views on both sides. 'I think of both the oni and Momotaro evil when depicting them, not as good against evil,' Urushibara said. 'In fact, they should've been able to get along, but have had no choice but to kill each other due to the circumstances around them, a situation that happens in real life, too.' He said he wanted to make the protagonist, Shiki, 'an honest and completely pure person.''The first scene [from the story] I pictured in my mind was of the oni going out of control, and from there I decided what kind of powers they would have,' he said. Shiki's classmates at Rasetsu Academy all have distinct personalities — eccentric, short-tempered and negative. The hustle and bustle at the academy adds color to what would otherwise be a serious drama. '[With the scenes at the academy], I wanted to bring a comedic atmosphere that unwittingly relaxes you,' he is happy that 'Tougen Anki' has been adapted into a TV anime. 'It's all thanks to the support of the readers,' he said. 'I think the characters come alive when the voice actors say their lines. I'm also looking forward to watching the battles play out, to see how they complement the original scenes.' 'Tougen Anki' is broadcast on the Nippon TV network from 11 p.m. on Fridays (the schedule is subject to changes) and on the BS Nippon TV satellite channel from 12:30 a.m. on Sundays. The anime can be watched on various streaming services as well.
Yomiuri Shimbun
7 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Tracing Footsteps of Absolute Pacifists in Hawaii: Adopted Son Seiki Scatters Donald Keene's Ashes at Sea
'This is the sea of Hawaii that Dad loved so much. Please rest in peace.' Seiki Keene, 75, the adopted son of Donald Keene, a Japanese literature scholar from the United States, spoke these words aboard a yacht off the coast of Honolulu. He then scattered the ashes of Keene, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 96, into the sea. At 12:19 p.m. on June 6 this year, a paper container filled with a small amount of ashes, which could fit in the palm of a hand, drifted away with pink and purple petals on the cobalt blue sea. A paper container containing Keene's ashes floats away on the ocean with Honolulu cityscape in the backgroundSeiki scattered flower petals from the yacht.A paper box containing Keene's ashes for scattering. It is an environmentally friendly container that dissolves in the sea in about two puts Keene's ashes, which he brought from Japan, into a paper container on the yacht before departing from Honolulu located between Japan and the U.S. mainland, is a place with special significance for Keene, where he developed a deep interest in Japan. Seiki wanted to mourn his father here. Moved by Japanese soldier's diaries Seiki Keene reads the same copy of The Tale of Genji that Donald Keene read as a college student, at his home in Kita Ward, Tokyo, on July Keene in September 2014 (Yomiuri Shimbun file photo)Keene is known for introducing Japanese literature to the world and for his friendships with famous writers such as Junichiro Tanizaki and Yukio Mishima. Keene, who was born and raised in New York, encountered Japanese literature in 1940 while studying at Columbia University's Faculty of Literature, when he picked up Arthur Waley's translation of The Tale of Genji at a bookstore. At that time, World War II had already begun in Europe. Feeling depressed, Keene became familiar with the world of The Tale of Genji, which did not depict war, and found peace of mind. In 1941, when Keene was a senior in college, war broke out between the United States and Japan. Keene sensed that 'great calamity was about to befall me' (from his autobiography), but when he learned that the U.S. Navy had opened a Japanese language school to gather information on the enemy, he volunteered to enroll. For Keene, studying Japanese was not only his 'favorite subject,' but also meant that he would not have to take up arms and kill people on the battlefield. After 11 months of intensive Japanese language training, Keene was assigned to the U.S. Navy Language Service and stationed in Hawaii, where he translated various Japanese military documents collected from the battlefields. When he read the diaries of Japanese soldiers who had died in combat, he found some to be highly literary and was impressed, thinking, 'This is truly a country of diary literature, dating back to the Heian period.' Keene wanted to return these diaries to their family someday, so he kept them in a drawer, but his superior officer found them and discarded them, deciding they were unnecessary. According to Seiki, Keene regretted losing them for many years. Reading The Tale of Genji Seiki Keene, right, receives an explanation of materials from Mitsutaka Nakamura, Japanese Studies Librarian, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Library, on June Yukuo Uyehara of the University of Hawaii, who taught Japanese literature to Keene (from an exhibition at the University of Hawaii)University of Hawaii at Manoa Library The University of Hawaii at Manoa is located north of Waikiki Beach. The spacious campus is lush with tropical trees and filled with birdsong. During the war, Keene attended lectures on Japanese literature given by Yukuo Uyehara, a first-generation Japanese American who passed away in 1998, while serving in the military. He reread The Tale of Genji, which he had enjoyed as a student, and wrote an essay in Japanese about his impressions of Kikuchi Kan's novel 'Shohai.' Mitsu taka Nakamura, a Japan studies librarian at the University of Hawaii Library who is familiar with Keene, said, 'I think Professor Uyehara was also impressed by the enthusiasm of the young American soldier.' Encounter with a kamikaze plane Courtesy of the Donald Keene Memorial FoundationAugust 1943, on Adak Island. Donald Keene, left, holds a carbine rifle in his right hand and a Japanese-English dictionary published by Kenkyusha in his left hand. After the war, when Keene was asked 'Did you actually fire the gun?' at a lecture in Japan, he replied, 'It was just acting,' making the audience of the Donald Keene Memorial FoundationDonald Keene with Nisei language soldiers in Okinawa in 1945, second from left in the back of the Donald Keene Memorial FoundationDonald Keene, left, interrogates Japanese prisoners of war after landing in Okinawa in of the Donald Keene Memorial FoundationDonald Keene performs the role of Taro in the kyogen play Chidori on September 13, 1956 (photo by Yukichi Watabe)However, Keene did not spend his wartime days in peace. He also experienced the harsh realities of battle as a soldier. In March 1945, toward the end of the war, Keene was on a transport ship bound for Okinawa. Just as the ship was about to land, Japanese kamikaze planes appeared in the sky. Keene, who was on the deck, was so nervous that he couldn't move and couldn't think of anything. Just as he felt that he had made eye contact with the pilot of a kamikaze plane approaching him, the plane crashed into the ship's mast and fell into the sea. In May 1943, he participated in the Battle of Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands, where the Japanese Imperial Army was completely wiped out. It was here that he saw a dead human body for the first time. Many soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army refused to be taken prisoner and chose to kill themselves. Keene wondered why Japanese soldiers did not throw their last hand grenades at American soldiers, but instead used them to kill themselves. Recalling that time, Keene told Seiki, 'I couldn't help but feel pity for them.' After the war, Keene became an outspoken opponent of war. He even avoided watching war documentaries on television because they brought back memories that kept him awake at night. When Seiki wore black clothes, Keene told him, 'I don't like black because it reminds me of totalitarianism and fascism.' Since then, Seiki stopped wearing black clothes.
Metropolis Japan
04-08-2025
- Metropolis Japan
Kinoshita Circus in Tachikawa
Get ready, Tokyo—the world-class Kinoshita Circus returns to Tachikawa for the first time in three years, and it's bringing all the thrills, gasps and wonder you remember (plus a few new surprises). From November 15, 2025, to February 23, 2026, the iconic red-and-white tent will rise again just north of Tachikawa Station in a special site provided by Tachihi Holdings, presenting the dazzling 'Super Miracle Illusion'—a grand-scale performance featuring some of the best circus acts from around the world. This touring show is co-hosted by the Yomiuri Shimbun, Nippon TV, Hochi Shimbun and Kinoshita Circus, in support of social welfare initiatives. What to Expect: Double Flying Trapeze Show – A heart-pounding aerial ballet of speed and trust New 'Wheel of Death' – A 15-meter-high daredevil act that defies gravity American Clowns & Hula Hoops – Laugh-out-loud fun with classic circus charm World-Class Handstand Performers – Gravity-defying strength and grace Visitors can also participate in hands-on experiences like juggling lessons, tent setup tours and even clown stage cameos. Whether you're bringing kids, revisiting childhood memories or seeing the circus for the first time, the Kinoshita Circus Tachikawa show promises magic for all ages.
