The official site of Ghibli Museum, Mitaka in Japan

Basic Information

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:03:41 +0900

Hours Of Operation

Museum：10：00～18：00

Closed

The Museum is closed every Tuesday, except on these Tuesdays:
　March 20, 2012; April 3, 2012; May 1, 2012; July 24, 2012; August 14, 2012; December 25, 2012.

The Museum is also closed at Year-end and for New Year's Holidays, and for periodic maintenance:
　Periodic Maintenance 1: May 22, 2012 through June 1, 2012
　Periodic Maintenance 2: November 6, 2012 through November 16, 2012
　Year-end and New Year Holidays: December 27, 2012 through January 2, 2013

Please click here for the Museum Calendar (subject to change)

＊Please check with designated local travel agencies.

Tickets

Entrance to the Ghibli Museum is strictly by advance purchase of a reserved ticket which specifies the appointed date of the reservation.

>>How to buy tickets outside Japan

>>How to buy tickets in Japan

Once you purchase a reserved tickets, no changes or refunds are allowed.
When you enter the Museum, you will exchange your reserved ticket with a "film" ticket (Only one film ticket per person).

Admission Fees

Over Age 19 ¥1,000
Age 13-18 ¥700
Age 7-12 ¥400
Age 4-6 ¥100

＊Children under 4 are admitted free of charge.
＊When purchasing the tickets outside Japan, charges will be calculated in your local currency at the current rate of exchange, and will also include a handling fee.

Special access for the Physically Handicapped

Restrooms

The Museum offers handicapped use facilities in restrooms on all floors (four either-sex facilities inside, and one facility each for males and females outside the Museum building). We also provide stands for chansing baby's diapers.

The Saturn Theater

Hearing assistance earphones are available for loan for the hearing impaired. As of now, only japanese is available.

For visitors using wheelchairs

All facilities in the three-story museum building excluding the roof garden are accessible by wheelchair. Wheelchairs are available for loan at the Museum. There is no elevator or other way to ascend from the second floor to the roof garden, except by the stairs.

For visitors who do not feel well

There are spaces available where you can rest.
Please ask our museum staff for details.

Museum Calendar 2012-2013

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:35:36 +0900

Closed

The Museum is closed every Tuesday, except on these Tuesdays:
　March 20, 2012; April 3, 2012; May 1, 2012; July 24, 2012; August 14, 2012; December 25, 2012.

＊ Please check with designated local travel agencies.

The Start of a New Ghibli Museum Exhibition

Fri, 13 May 2011 16:37:12 +0900

"The View from the Cat Bus" - A Special Exhibition
The Ghibli Museum, Mitaka will present a new Special Exhibition "The View from the Cat Bus" beginning in June 2011.

Beautifully hand painted backgrounds which serve as the platform upon which to stage the tale are a hallmark of Studio Ghibli filmmaking. The style and technique of the art may vary from film to film, but the artists' ability to capture colors as they appear in the dazzling sunlight and to transfer them to the movie screen is present in all Ghibli films. By having the chance to look closely at the background pictures, we have a chance to feel what the artists intended to express and to see how they realized their visions.

The exhibition presents the background art separated from the other elements that go into the film and in combination with three-dimensional models, lit in such a way as to enhance the feeling of being inside the film's setting. The intent is to allow the visitor to appreciate the artwork anew and to come to appreciate how the light and space is manipulated in order to create a heightened emotional effect.

The first exhibition room will feature background art from MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO. The idealized landscapes from this film have become iconic representations of the Japanese countryside and instilled in generations of Japanese moviegoers a longing for a simpler, less complicated past. They call up fond memories of exciting days spent under the summer sun and the peaceful melancholy of a rural twilight. And not only the children but adults as well will have the privilege to take a ride in the Cat Bus and rediscover their childhood by regarding the view from within the magical creature.

In the second exhibition room, visitors will alight from the Cat Bus and find themselves in a scene from another Ghibli film. In the antique shop Earth Emporium that was depicted in the film WHISPER OF THE HEART. In the street-side restaurants for spirits or in Yubaba's bathhouse residence from the film SPIRITED AWAY. In the shop where Sophie works making hats from the film HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE. Or deep in the forest of the Great Deer God from the film PRINCESS MONONOKE.

We hope that visitors to the exhibition will come to appreciate the beauty and the evocative power of the art that goes into the making of the backgrounds for Ghibli's films.

【Organizer】 Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation
©1988 Nibariki - Ｇ　©Nibariki　©Museo d'Arte Ghibli

Treasure Hunting

Sun, 01 May 2011 19:03:58 +0900

Treasure Hunting
(Japanese tilte: Takara-sagashi)
Approx. 9 minutes
Based on the picture book "Treasure-Hunting" (Takara-sagashi) by Rieko Nakagawa and illustrated by Yuriko Omura (Fukuinkan Shoten Publishing)
Planning by Hayao Miyazaki

Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:06:28 +0900

Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess
(Japanese tilte: Panndane to Tamagohime)
Approx. 12 minutes
Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki
©2010 Nibariki・G

This is the Kind of Museum I Want to Make!

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:06:51 +0900

A museum that is interesting and which relaxes the soul
A museum where much can be discovered
A museum based on a clear and consistent philosophy
A museum where those seeking enjoyment can enjoy, those seeking to ponder can ponder, and those seeking to feel can feel
A museum that makes you feel more enriched when you leave than when you entered!

To make such a museum, the building must be...
Put together as if it were a film
Not arrogant, magnificent, flamboyant, or suffocating
Quality space where people can feel at home, especially when it's not crowded
A building that has a warm feel and touch
A building where the breeze and sunlight can freely flow through

The museum must be run in such a way so that...
Small children are treated as if they were grown-ups
The handicapped are accommodated as much as possible
The staff can be confident and proud of their work
Visitors are not controlled with predetermined courses and fixed directions
It is suffused with ideas and new challenges so that the exhibits do not get dusty or old, and that investments are made to realize that goal

The displays will be...
Not only for the benefit of people who are already fans of Studio Ghibli
Not a procession of artwork from past Ghibli films as if it were "a museum of the past"
A place where visitors can enjoy by just looking, can understand the artists' spirits, and can gain new insights into animation
Original works and pictures will be made to be exhibited at the museum
A project room and an exhibit room will be made, showing movement and life (Original short films will be produced to released in the museum!)
Ghibli's past films will be probed for understanding at a deeper level

The cafe will be...
An important place for relaxation and enjoyment
A place that doesn't underestimate the difficulties of running a museum cafe
A good cafe with a style all its own where running a cafe is taken seriously and done right

The museum shop will be...
Well-prepared and well-presented for the sake of the visitors and running the museum
Not a bargain shop that attaches importance only to the amount of sales
A shop that continues to strive to be a better shop
Where original items made only for the museum are found

The museum's relation to the park is...
Not just about caring for the plants and surrounding greenery but also planning for how things can improve ten years into the future
Seeking a way of being and running the museum so that the surrounding park will become even lusher and better, which will in turn make the museum better as well!

This is what I expect the museum to be, and therefore I will find a way to do it

This is the kind of museum I don't want to make!
A pretentious museum
An arrogant museum
A museum that treats its contents as if they were more important than people
A museum that displays uninteresting works as if they were significant

Ghibli Museum, Mitaka
Executive Director
Hayao Miyazaki

A boy's Room - A Gift From Grampa

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:14:25 +0900

This is one of the five rooms on the first floor called "Where a Film is Born". The room seems to belong to someone who was sketching at the desk just a few minutes ago. The room is filled with books and toys. The walls are all covered with illustrations and sketches. Hanging from the ceiling are a model of an airplane and a model of a Peterandone. It's a place where the owner of the room has stored his favorite things. This room provides lots of inspiration for what will go on to the blank piece of paper on the desk to become the origin of an actual film.
After walking through the five rooms, you will get an idea how an animated film is made. With a little bit of an idea and a flash of inspiration, a film-maker struggles with his work and ultimately completes the film.

Poof, Boing! The Cat Bus

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:48:28 +0900

The Cat Bus is waiting for you in a room on the second floor. It must be everyone's dream to touch and ride the Cat Bus. In order to make this wish come true, we made a room with an actual Cat Bus. If you remember the Cat Bus from "My Neighbor Totoro", you have probably dreamed of touching its fluffy fur. Now you can do it. Next to the Cat Bus, a bunch of soot-black Dust Bunnies are waiting for you to play with them. We wanted to make the Cat Bus as big as it is in the film, but because it wouldn't fit in the museum, we ended up downsizing him a little bit.

The Cat Bus is for elementary school children and under (age 12 and under) only.

Our Guardian - The Robot Solider on the Rooftop

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:48:02 +0900

From the terrace off the Cat Bus Room, a spiral stairway leads to the roof, and there you will find a grassy rooftop garden. From this lofty post, a serene five-meter-tall Robot Soldier (from “Laputa Castle in the Sky”) looks down on Inokashira Park.
But have no fear; the Robot Soldier is the Guardian of the Ghibli Museum!

Passing behind the Robot Soldier you will find yourself in a patch of wildly growing vegetation which makes you forget that you are on a building and not in the park itself. Please take a moment to experience the seasonally changing plant life.

Ghibli Original Short Animated Feature at the Museum Only!

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:35:43 +0900

The Saturn Theater is a small theater in the basement of the Museum with only about eighty seats. There you can watch an original short animated feature from Ghibli, which can only be seen in the Museum's theatre. A blue sky and lots of colorful flowers are drawn on the ceiling and walls. When the film ends, the windows open and the sunshine comes in. You can sit on a little red bench or the back of a seat to see the big screen without being blocked.
Most of you probably don't know how a movie is projected. But here the projectionist's room, which looks like a tiny train car, is transparent, so you can see how film moves through a projector.

(The Theater houses approximately 80 seats, with a dts sound system)

>>Screening Schedule

Mei and the Baby Cat Bus