Past Exhibitions

Date :  May 13  (Sat) – September 10  (Sun) ,  2017

Location :  Exhibition Gallery (7th floor)

Hours :  11:00am - 6:30pm (admission until 6:00pm)

Closed :  Mondays

Admission :  Single Ticket 250  (Group Admission 200)  /  University & College Students, Seniors  (age 65 or over) 130  (Group Admission 60)
*Free for High School Students and under 18 ;  Persons with disability and one person accompanying each of them are admitted free or charge .

Free on May 18 ,  International Museum Day .

For more detailed information ,  please see the following page  (in Japanese) .

  As 2017 is the centenary of animation in Japan, there is surely no better time to retrace the steps of its pioneers. Among the many filmmakers who appeared and invented techniques such as paper cutout, cel, or silhouette, it was Tadahito Mochinaga (1919-1999) who started puppet animation as a new genre.

  Born in Tokyo, brought up in Saga, Japan and Changchun, China, Mochinaga entered Geijutsu Eiga Sha in 1939 and learned cel animation under Mitsuyo Seo. He also invented the first multiplane animation stand in Japan when he made Arichan the Ant (1941). He moved to China in 1945, the year the war ended, where he devoted himself to setting up a film studio in the newly born state. Mochinaga took charge of animation production and nurtured many animators who would later become leading lights in China’s animation world. After coming back to Japan in 1953, he led the Ningyo Eiga Seisakujo and produced masterpieces such as The Story of Little Black Sambo (1956), and afterwards got involved in American TV programs and films such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). In particular Mad Monster Party? (1967) had a strong impact on film director Tim Burton when he was a boy.

  As a pioneer puppet animator both in Japan and China, who also attracted children in the US, Mochinaga has a unique internationality in Japanese animation history. This exhibition aims to take a close look at the life of this distinguished creator and prominent educator through his puppets, production documents, photography and animation works, which have been kept at his family home for many years. It is also an opportunity to encounter delightful puppets created by his apprentices such as Kihachiro Kawamoto.