Anpanman's Creator Yanase Takashi Gets His First-Ever Major Retrospective — Now in Tokyo

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The creator behind one of Japan's most enduring children's characters is finally getting the retrospective treatment — and it's currently on view in Tokyo.

What the Exhibition Covers

"Yanase Takashi: Life Is About Bringing Joy to Others" (やなせたかし展 人生はよろこばせごっこ) is organized around roughly 200 original artworks, grouped into themes including a broad career overview, his manga work, his poetry, his picture books, and Anpanman specifically.

Why Now

The exhibition marks the 30th anniversary of the Yanase Takashi Memorial Anpanman Museum, giving the retrospective both an occasion and, notably, its billing as the first large-scale touring exhibition ever dedicated to Yanase's full body of work.

Where to See It

The exhibition is touring nationally, with each venue running its own dates. The Tokyo leg is at Setagaya Literary Museum; the tour has also included venues in Kyoto and Kumamoto, among others, each with its own separate schedule.

What To Know

Anpanman is one of the most recognizable characters in Japan — a fixture of children's media for decades — and this is the first time the full scope of the person who created him has ever been presented at this scale, making it a rare chance to see the actual original artwork behind a character most fans have only ever known through TV and merchandise.

Yanase Takashi's career extended far beyond Anpanman — he worked as a manga artist, poet, essayist, and lyricist for decades before Anpanman became a hit relatively late in his career — and exhibitions like this one, organized around an anniversary milestone (here, the Anpanman Museum's 30th), are a common way Japanese cultural institutions use a specific date to justify and fund a first-of-its-kind retrospective that might not otherwise get organized.

What Fans Are Saying

• "Didn't realize Anpanman's creator never had a retrospective like this before."
• "200 original artworks sounds like a genuinely serious exhibition, not a merch pop-up."
• "Great excuse to visit Setagaya Literary Museum."

Original Japanese

• 「アンパンマンの生みの親にこういう展覧会がなかったの、意外」
• 「原画200点はかなり本格的」
• 「世田谷文学館に行く理由ができた」

Easy Japanese

アンパンマンを作った、やなせたかしさんの大きな展覧会が東京で開かれています。約200点の原画が見られます。