Takamura Mukuo Exhibit

A retrospective of anime art director Takamura Mukuo opens April 25 in Sasebo, bringing about 100 hand-painted backgrounds and sketches back to his hometown. (tokyoartbeat.com) The show, “Takamura Mukuo: The Pioneer of Anime Background Art,” runs through May 24 at the Sasebo City Museum Shimase Art Center in Nagasaki Prefecture. General admission is 1,300 yen, student tickets are 500 yen, and children in junior high school and younger enter free. (tokyoartbeat.com) Tokyo Art Beat says the exhibition will display roughly 100 surviving background paintings, art settings, and sketches from Takamura’s career. The museum lists regular hours as 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with final entry at 5:30 p.m. (tokyoartbeat.com) (shimabi.com) Takamura worked as art director or background artist on titles that helped define anime’s visual language, including *Galaxy Express 999*, *3000 Leagues in Search of Mother*, *Harmagedon*, and *Sailor Moon*. He was born in Sasebo in 1938 and died in 1992 at age 54. (artfuljapan.com) (wikipedia.org) The exhibit centers a part of anime production that usually sits behind the characters: the painted streets, skies, rooms, and landscapes that give scenes depth, time, and mood. Tokyo Art Beat says the show is framed as a reappraisal of background art’s role in the evolution of Japanese animation. (tokyoartbeat.com) Part of the renewed attention comes from a book that has been hard to find for years. Takamura’s 160-page art book, published in April 2004 by Anido Film, is held by the National Diet Library and university collections in Japan. (ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp) (ci.nii.ac.jp) Japanese-language sources say that 2004 volume was printed in a limited run of 1,000 copies and collected surviving background paintings and art boards. Those works included images tied to films such as *Galaxy Express 999* and later television work connected to *Sailor Moon*. (wikipedia.org) (ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp) Takamura also built an institution around that craft. Mukuo Studio, the background art company he founded, says it is still operating; outside databases and fan references place its establishment in 1968 and incorporation in 1971. (mukuo.jp) (anidb.net) The Sasebo show arrives after a crowdfunding push tied to planning costs, with a goal of 1.5 million yen and stretch ambitions that included a catalog and a national tour. Artful Japan reported the campaign in January as organizers prepared the hometown retrospective. (artfuljapan.com) When the doors open on April 25, the exhibition will put anime’s scenery in the foreground for a month. In a medium built from moving characters, Sasebo is giving the still images behind them a gallery of their own. (tokyoartbeat.com)