Special Exhibitions

Over 20 years have passed since the planning of the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka which opened to the public in October 2001. Throughout this time, "To offer our visitors an intriguing experience" remains the basic idea of how the museum is built and how the exhibits are made with constant effort. This exhibition will introduce the work behind the museum's creation with pictures and texts by director Hayao Miyazaki himself.

The first room of this special exhibition showcases past special exhibitions that Miyazaki was involved in, starting with the first special exhibition "Spirited Away." How was the film's proposal which the director has poured his heart into in-between production created? What were the thoughts behind the modifications made for getting closer to what he aimed to convey? Such development process and embedded thoughts will be presented.
Some work took relentless trial and error, while some hardship was overcome with a spur of "inspiration" or "idea." Visitors may comprehend that the creation process is a strenuous yet stimulating effort at the same time.

The second room tells the story of how the animation production company Studio Ghibli decided to create a museum through illustrations of imageboards depicting the various ideas of how it should look. In addition, the blueprint with Miyazaki's last-minute changes penned into the design will be on display for the first time.
Moreover, visitors may compare the Museum's conceptual imageboards with a three dimensional model that shows concisely each level of the completed Ghibli Museum.

At the gallery on the second floor, illustrations drawn for the exhibition featuring the museum short films will be on display. Here, visitors can also get a sense of being on board the children's favorite Baby Cat Bus.

The multi-talented Miyazaki not only dedicates himself to feature animation productions, he is also a graphic novel artist, a designer of buildings and space, and a creator of exhibitions. Through this exhibition, visitors can discover that his fundamental mindset and approach to various projects are identical to those applied to film production. We sincerely hope that our visitors will enjoy this exhibition.