Ghibli Museum

Permanent exhibitions

On the bottom floor of the museum is an exhibit room showing the history and science of animation, including a three-dimensional zoetrope named "Bouncing Totoro", with models of characters from My Neighbor Totoro (1988). On the first floor is a mock-up of an animation studio. Called "Where a Film is Born", the five-room exhibit is meant to showcase the creative process of an animation filmmaker, including illustration techniques. Packed with books and toys, the room also displays drawings and illustrations that cover the walls.[3] Another exhibit demonstrates the process of creating an animated film, with sketches, storyboarding, keyframing, cleanup, coloring, and background painting.

Special exhibitions

In addition to Ghibli-oriented exhibitions, the museum hosts an area showcasing work from other studios.

Short films

The Ghibli Museum shows several short films. Located in the basement is the Saturn Theater,[3] which has windows where automated shades lower and open before and after each showing. This is because Miyazaki designed the theater with small children in mind, who could possibly be scared of the closed-in space. The museum shows one of the following Ghibli short films in the Saturn Theatre:[20]

The films are also screened at the Cinema Orion in the Grand Warehouse section of Ghibli Park, in Nagakute.

• Koro's Big Walk (コロの大さんぽ)
• Water Spider Monmon (水グモもんもん)
• Mei and the Kittenbus (めいとこねこバス)
• The Day I Harvested a Star (星をかった日)
• The Whale Hunt (くじらとり)
• Looking for a home (やどさがし)
• A Sumo Wrestler's Tail (ちゅうずもう)
• Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess (パン種とタマゴ姫)
• Treasure Hunting (たからさがし)
• Boro the Caterpillar (毛虫のボロ)

Tri Hawks

Tri Hawks is a reading room and bookstore in the Ghibli Museum. Opened on 6 February 2002, it is filled with books recommended by Hayao Miyazaki. The name Tri Hawks comes from a translation of "Mitaka", the city where the museum is located, which means "three hawks".[3]

Mamma Aiuto

Mamma Aiuto, on the top of the Ghibli Museum, is a souvenir shop named after the band of sky pirates in the movie Porco Rosso.[21] The film is set in Italy, and the name Mamma Aiuto translates to "mama, help me" in Italian.[3] Among other items, it sells classic and non-Japanese animated movies under the Ghibli Museum Library label.

Straw Hat Café

The Straw Hat Café is the Ghibli Museum's only sit-down restaurant. It was created with the help of a housewife and mother of four; Miyazaki wanted the café's food to be "a kind of home cooking". It serves hot and cold food, snacks, and desserts.[3] Sold at the takeout section is an original alcoholic beverage, "Valley of the Wind" beer, which was created in a collaboration with Dairy Kingdom Oratche, a microbrewery in Tanna Basin. The beverage's label was hand-drawn by Gorō Miyazaki, Miyazaki's son, who is an animation director at Studio Ghibli.[22]

Catbus room

There is a playroom for children aged 12 and under, with a stuffed Catbus toy to play in. Its size is slightly reduced from the original scale in My Neighbor Totoro, for it to fit into the museum.[3]

Rooftop garden

On the museum's roof is a garden with a life-size, five-meter-tall statue of a robot from the final episode of Lupin III Part II and from the film Castle in the Sky.[23] The Robot Soldier was made by the artist Kunio Shachimaru. It is formed from a hammered copper plate and took two years to complete. The keystone from Castle in the Sky, bearing an inscription in Old Persian cuneiform, which can also be found in the rooftop garden, is a replica of the control room stone found in the floating castle, Laputa, in the movie.

Fresco painting

At the entrance of the building, the museum's ceiling is covered in a fresco painting that features characters from Studio Ghibli films, such as Kiki on her broomstick from Kiki's Delivery Service (1989).[3][24]