(above) Inoue-san inspects a rough sketch of his giant artwork in Ueno Royal Museum. As promised, more pictures from the book that was released with Inoue Takehiko’s The LAST Manga Exhibition in Ueno. The exhibition has officially ended on the 6th of July.

The book focuses on Inoue-san’s working process and his thoughts right from the conception of the ideas for the exhibition till the completion, and gives the reader a very rare insight into the creative mind of the artist. I have reproduced some of the text found in the book, in verbatim below. ( the text found in the book is in english. )

I’LL DO IT. Those were Inoue Takehiko’s exact words to the Ueno Royal Museum just a year and a half before the Manga exhibition opened. The museum first approached Inoue with its proposal for the exhibition six months before that, in June 2006. After 2 years of waiting and planning the exhibition is finally a reality. For Inoue, who mainly draws Manga series for weekly Manga magazines, the museum’s offer would turn out to be a long journey through uncharted territory.

(above) One of my favourite pictures from the book. Inoue-san gazes at the empty wall space in front of the exhibition hall that will eventually feature the official poster for the exhibition. (below)

Inoue has been rolling the offer over in his mind for six months. “What could I do in a museum ? Nothing hit me right away. I didn’t want to just line up my illustrations for people to look at. If I was going to do it, I wanted to do something challenging.”

Then one afternoon, Inoue says, “What if Musashi dies ?” Spring was just around the corner.

Inoue drew sketches, took them to the museum and developed his ideas. Each room in the museum has a different size and height, creating a unique and unexpected rhythm when seen in succession.

Inoue took the freshly finished script for Volume 28 of Vagabond and added sketches that would make up for the first four drawings of the Manga exhibition. It was as if the exhibition that he was starting to draw was beginning from the final pages of the graphic novel. Volume 28 is scheduled for release on May 23rd (2008). The manga exhibition kicks off the next day on the 24th. will this message find its way to the readers ?

I haven’t finished reading the entire book, but I hope to devote some quality time to do so soon.

Update 30/11/2014 : The first volume (white cover) of the 2 catalogs is now available for purchase on Amazon Japan.

Availability : Unfortunately both the catalogue and dvd were on sale only during the exhibition, and cannot be purchased anywhere else. Folks who want to get a copy can try searching on Yahoo Auctions Japan, and maybe Ebay.

Read Part I here.