“Manga is culture.”
For most people these days, that’s a given. Even the illustrious French art museum, the Louvre, has displayed Japanese manga collections. But for a long period in Japan, manga was looked down upon as something childish, and with no educational value.

The first person to argue that manga was a form of culture was manga artist and Masuda Town native, Takao Yaguchi.

Yaguchi, author of the popular manga Fisherman Sanpei, grew up in the Saruhannai neighborhood of Masuda Town, in Yokote City. The eldest son in a farmer family, he grew up fishing for masu salmon and charr in the nearby Saruhannai River, collecting wild fruits and roots in the mountains, and hunting. These experiences are what inspired the story of Fisherman Sanpei. Battles of wits between fish and man; the drama of catching the biggest legendary fish; connecting man and nature through fishing; with themes such as these, Fisherman Sanpei inspired a whole new genre of manga. The story was also turned into an anime, which was broadcast all over the world.

The manga was so successful that Yokote City thought to make a museum in Yaguchi’s honor. When Yaguchi heard that, he said:

“I don’t need a museum in my honor. Instead, why not make a museum in this country town that will inspire young people who want to become manga artists to preserve our manga culture?”

Thus the Yokote Masuda Manga Museum was created,; in hopes of bringing forth the next generation of manga that will instill excitement in people throughout the world. Currently, it has over 400,000 original panel drawings by 180 manga artists from around the world who have supported Yaguchi’s ideals. That number makes it the largest collection in the world. For now, the museum is focused on exhibiting and preserving those works. But why original panel drawings? We’ll explain more later.