A virtual tour takes us inside Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki’s creative factory

The studio-museum in Mitaka, holding the king of Japanese animation’s work, has always been a mysterious place where it was forbidden to take pics. Until today, where a virtual tour leads us directly into it.

It can be said that the lockdown, severely applied also in Japan, was the first real opportunity to bring out the Studio Ghibli Museum from the halo of mystery that surrounded it. Founded in 1955, the Studio is the masterpieces’ birthplace of Japanese director, screenwriter, animator, cartoonist and film producer Hayao Miyazaki, winner of two Oscar prizes and the author of films such as The Enchanted City, Princess Mononoke and The wind rises.

This place, located in Tokyo’s Mitaka district, has always been characterized by discretion, welcoming visitors in limited number and preventing them from taking pictures and shooting videos once inside. But in recent weeks this place appeared for the first time on Youtube channel 三 鷹 の 森 ジ ブ リ 美 術 館 GHIBLI MUSEUM, MITAKA, sharing images with curious virtual visitors or with its more nostalgic fans.

Through a few short videos, architectural details and spaces are shown, such as the entrance decorated in mosaic with the images of My Neighbor Totoro, the permanent exhibition room in which films take life (or rather, the drawings that compose them), a horror vacui filled with props and prints depicting past successful productions. A separate video is dedicated to the so-called 'Space of Wonders,' whose walls are covered with a large fresco with a smiling sun in the center, depicting Kiki on her broom and Nausicaä on her strange jet. The route ends at the Straw Hat Cafe, inspired by the setting of Howl’s Wandering Castle.

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