To use this site, please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page.
This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies.
Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
The Yomiuri Shimbun A woman sits inside the library in Kiki’s Museum of Literature in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
13:32 JST, October 18, 2023
A literary museum showing the world created by Eiko Kadono, famed author of “Majo no Takkyubin” (“Kiki’s Delivery Service”), was unveiled to the press in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, on Tuesday.
The museum, Maho no Bungakukan (Kiki’s Museum of Literature), will open to the public on Nov. 3.
The facility is also called the Edogawa-ku Kadono Eiko Jido Bungakukan (Edogawa Ward Eiko Kadono museum of children’s literature).
The Yomiuri Shimbun The exterior of Kiki’s Museum of Literature in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo.
The museum, built in a municipal park, is a three-story building with a white exterior and a floor area of about 1,660 square meters. Architect Kengo Kuma designed the building. Strawberry red, a feature of many of Kadono’s works, has been used abundantly inside the museum. The facility’s library houses about 10,000 children’s books selected by Kadono.
Now 88, Kadono lived in the ward from the age of 3 to 23. In 2018, she received the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing, which is dubbed the Nobel Prize of children’s literature. The museum was built to honor and preserve her achievement for posterity.
Kadono, who became the director of the museum, attended a ceremony at the facility on Tuesday.
“I’ve been so excited about today,” she said. “I think this will be a place where not only Japanese people but also people from overseas can have fun.”
Eiko Kadono speaks during the opening ceremony of Kiki’s Museum of Literature in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo.The Yomiuri Shimbun Eiko Kadono, second from right in the back row, and architect Kengo Kuma, to her left, pose for a photo during the opening ceremony of Kiki’s Museum of Literature in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo.The Yomiuri Shimbun Copies of “Kiki’s Delivery Service” in many languages are on display at Kiki’s Museum of Literature in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo.
