Update April 6th 2021 – Part II of my review for the book is up ! Read it here.

Hayao Miyazaki And The Ghibli Museum (宮崎駿とジブリ美術館) is a sumptuous 2 volume art book set that explores the huge collection of illustrations, sketches and art work created by the famed Ghibli director for the many exhibitions held at the museum, located in Mitaka, Tokyo. Most of the art work included have never been published in any book before.

Since its opening 20 years ago in 2001, Hayao Miyazaki has been heavily involved in many of the creative aspects of the museum like planning the architecture designs and decor, creating special animated short films for the Saturn Theater as well as curating the special animation exhibitions.

Running at almost 600 pages, the expansive content are spread across 2 books – CREATING THE GHIBLI MUSEUM ( 174 pages ) covers the sketches, imageboards and ideas that Hayao Miyazaki created during the early planning stages of building the museum, and CREATING SPECIAL EXHIBITS 2001–2020 ( 424 pages ) details the production materials, sketches and art work created for the special animation exhibitions held at the museum across 2 decades.

Because there is so much material to cover, I’ve split my review into 2 parts, Part 1 will cover content from the volume CREATING SPECIAL EXHIBITS 2001–2020, and Part 2 will cover the pages from CREATING THE GHIBLI MUSEUM.

First let’s take a look at the packaging and physical contents of the set –

The book set comes packed in a pulp cardboard case, and the 2 volumes themselves are housed in a hard and sturdy cardboard slipcase decorated on the front with a sketch of the robot from Castle In The Sky.

As you can tell from the size reference of my wacom tablet, the book set is huge ! You’ll probably need a bookshelf of considerable height to display this one.

Now let’s dive into the actual book contents of the volume CREATING SPECIAL EXHIBITS 2001–2020. Miyazaki-san’s unbridled passion and enthusiasm for curating the best possible exhibition is clearly evident in all these rich and spell-binding illustrations he drew for every different exhibition; Castle In The Sky/Imaginary Flying Machines (2002-2004) ( images below ) was one of the first exhibitions held at the museum.

(below) An amazing diorama of of the anime Heidi, Girl Of The Alps, which I was fortunate enough to see at the Takahata Isao Retrospective exhibition held in 2019.

(above left) Miyazaki-san draws a whimsical comic of Baba Yaga, a supernatural being from Slavic folklore based on the original drawing by the amazing Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin. This was for the special exhibition The Gift of Illustrations ― A Source of Popular Culture (2012-2013).

(below) Lovely illustrations from the special exhibition The Nutcracker and Mouse King Ghibli Exhibition ( 2015 ).

(above) Illustrations from special exhibition The Haunted Tower ― Perfect Popular Culture ( 2016 ). Some of these art work can be found in The Haunted Tower book.

(above & below) Marketing/promotional posters for the special exhibitions, including The View From Totoro’s Cat Bus.

One particular lovely feature of this art book set is the inclusion of elaborate English translations for almost all the Japanese captions, something which is not found in, I dare say, 99% of art books published in Japan. The English translations really help to contextualize the art work, providing a much more immersive reading experience for the viewer.

Stay tuned for Part 2, which will cover contents from the volume CREATING THE GHIBLI MUSEUM.
Would I recommend this book ? If you’re a fan of Hayao Miyazaki’s most lovely illustrations, absolutely. As I previously mentioned above, the inclusion of the very detailed English translations is also a very big plus. The downside ? It’s a very expensive book, no mistake about it. Now whether you deem it worth the high price will depend on how big a Miyazaki fan you are. For me, it’s worth it.

Availability – At the time of writing this article, this book set has seen 2 reprints, both of which sold out very quickly. There seems to be some indication that the publisher might be doing a 3rd reprint, so if you see the item in stock on Amazon Japan again and plan to get a copy, do not hesitate !

If you want to purchase a copy from the Amazon Japan marketplace sellers, you might need to use a proxy shipping service like tenso.com as many of the marketplace sellers do not ship internationally. There are also sellers on Amazon USA, Canada and UK, but be prepared to pay a premium for it.

“Hayao Miyazaki And The Ghibli Museum Art Book 宮崎駿とジブリ美術館 イラストをオールカラーで900点以上収録した豪華な2冊セット” art book details :

Dimensions – 28.1 x 8 x 36.4 cm
Softcover, 598 pages ( 2 volumes housed in a thick cardboard slipcase )
In Japanese & English language

Buy From Amazon.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | CDJapan

You might also be interested in these items :

13