Ishinomori Comics Museum

About

The Ishinomori Mangattan Museum, on a sandbar at the mouth of the former Kitakami River in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, opened on July 23, 2001. It honors the manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori, who came from the town of Ishimori and considered Ishinomaki his second hometown; the museum was built after the city's mayor requested his cooperation in 1995 for a "manga-based town revitalization" project. The building's design was based on a spaceship Ishinomori himself had conceived. In March 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake sent a roughly five-meter tsunami through the building, flooding the first floor almost to the ceiling, about 5.5 meters up. The original artwork stored on the second floor and above survived undamaged. After about a year and eight months of closure, the museum reopened on November 17, 2012.