Inoue Takehiko of renowned “Slam Dunk” fame takes his manga art to the next dizzying level with “井上雄彦 最後のマンガ展” (Inoue Takehiko : The LAST Manga Exhibition), a collaborative project with Ueno Royal Museum that took 6 months of preparation and production work. The theme of the exhibition is centered on legendary sword master Miyamoto Musashi, the main protagonist of his “Vagabond” manga series, which in turned was based on the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. Inoue-san produced over 140 unique pieces of Sumi-e ( ink and washing ) paintings for the sole purpose of this exhibition.
Tickets for the exhibition were near impossible to acquire; reserved tickets on sale online were snapped up eons ago, so I had to queue up for the daily tickets sold at the museum.
I’ve arrived on a Saturday morning at 10.30am ( the exhibition starts at 10 ) and there must have been around 4-500 persons waiting to get tickets, I kid you not.
(above) Braving the rain for Vagabond. The queue stretches for much much longer than I can show in the picture. I queued up for an hour till around 11.30am, and by then the day’s tickets have been sold out, so I had to return the next day, this time at 8am. ( Inoue-san himself requested only a limited number of visitors per day via sessions, so that the paintings can be viewed and appreciated in a relaxed pace. )
(above) “Thank you for coming today.” penned personally by Inoue-san.
I meant it quite literally when I said that Inoue-san took his art to the next level in this exhibition – many of the pieces featured were very large and required him to abandon his usual style used for the manga as he flexed his creative muscles and painted in bolder strokes, at times directly onto the white walls of the exhibition hall.
Photography was stricted prohibited, but I will show more pictures from the art book (below) pressed specially for this exhibition that has some prints and sketches, as well as an exhaustive documention of the making of, in part II.
Read Part II here.
You might also be interested in these items :
Inoue Takehiko : The LAST Manga Exhibition Part II
Inoue Takehiko : The LAST Manga Exhibition Complete Catalogue
Vagabond + Inoue Takehiko + Nissin Cup Noodles Commercial
Sumi – Takehiko Inoue Vagabond Art Book Review
Water – Takehiko Inoue Vagabond Art Book Review
June 30th, 2008 at 1:43 am
wow…i really like Inoue Takehiko’s artwork of Vagabond. he is really talented in black and white painting…amazing. you are lucky to live in japan to see his artwork exhibition. i am looking forward to see more photos in Part II.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:34 am
I was there and passed by Ueno park and the queue was hundreds long. Realised I had no chance of getting in. Looking forward to your writeup!
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:52 pm
*@!#@^&$ why am i not in japan :^(
hes my favourite artist! lucky u.. for managing to get hold of the tickets! heheh
is the artbook available everywhere or just at the event?
looking forward to part2…
^ u ^
July 4th, 2008 at 4:39 am
I just so happened to be visiting Tokyo and wandered into Ueno Park. I saw the exhibit, but the tickets had already sold out :(.
It looked like it would be awesome. So far, I have heard it was. Wish I could have seen it.
July 5th, 2008 at 1:28 am
alice/Dave/John : Thanks ! Be posting part II soon. :]
Eli : I guess I was really close to missing it too, if I hadn’t tried getting up earlier to line up for tickets. I’ll post more pictures in part II. :]
July 16th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
ei inoue make slam dunk 2 i cant die without reading it 1st
November 14th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
wich I could be there !
November 19th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Takehiko Inoue is amazing, i think he´s the best i´ve ever seen!..gaah it would be good to live in japan, i would like to see his artwork :). Here where I dont know no one who really likes his Art D:
December 11th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
keepin up idol….
and tnx for your vagabond…
its my inspiration
November 1st, 2014 at 11:18 am
wow very interesting this manga art exibition