Exhibition Featuring Legendary Japanese Gundam Anime Creator Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Underway at Aomori Museum; Rare, Personal Memorabilia on Display

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:45 JST, June 6, 2025

AOMORI — An exhibition featuring Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, a manga artist and animation director of the anime series “Kido Senshi Gundam”(“Mobile Suit Gundam”), is being held at the Aomori Museum of Art in Aomori.

An opening ceremony was held on April 18 ahead of the official start of the exhibition, which is called “Yasuhiko Yoshikazu: Divine Animator and Draftsman,” with a preview of the exhibition available to visitors.

“I experienced a great turning point in Aomori and Hirosaki,” the 77-year-old legendary creator said at the event. “I am grateful to be here again.”

Yasuhiko was born in the town of Engaru, Hokkaido. After graduating from high school, he studied at Hirosaki University’s faculty of humanities and social sciences. He was expelled from the school after getting arrested during a student movement held there. Following his expulsion, an acquaintance in Hirosaki gave him a job drawing pictures for a magazine in the town.

“The experience [drawing for the magazine] gave me the ambition to work in Tokyo,” he recalled.

The exhibition has about 1,000 items, including original drawings from various anime and manga, sketches of manga drawn in a notebook by Yasuhiko when he studied at the university and materials related to his creative activities, such as Gundam movie posters. Also being exhibited is a clipping from a newspaper article about Yasuhiko’s arrest, which includes his mug shot, and a written announcement informing him of his expulsion from school.

“I have never seen some of these items,” he said.

The exhibition will be held through June 29. Admission is ¥1,700 for adults, ¥1,000 for university students and free for those 18 years old and younger.