11:00 / 12:30 / 14:00
Museum admission not included
Japanese, with English interpretation
One day only
Friday, November 6, 2026 — 11:00, 12:30 and 14:00
JPY 15,000 per person · 65 minutes · up to 12 guests per session · ages 5 and up
The idea
Manga did not begin with manga.
Long before comic books, Japanese artists were giving animals human gestures and pulling faces into exaggerated expressions. This session starts there, and ends with a page that is yours.
Choju-giga
A set of ink-painted handscrolls from the late 12th to early 13th century, kept at Kosanji temple in Kyoto. In the first scroll, rabbits, frogs and monkeys swim, wrestle and chase one another like people. It is sometimes called Japan’s oldest manga.
Hokusai Manga
Katsushika Hokusai’s books of sketches, first published in 1814 and eventually running to fifteen volumes. Here “manga” meant drawings made as the brush wandered: people, animals, faces and expressions, meant to be copied and learned from.
A working manga artist
Kazuo Maekawa has drawn manga professionally for more than 27 years, including the manga of Ace Attorney and Ace Attorney Investigations. He shows you how the same tricks of face and gesture still work on the page today.
A room that is usually closed
Kujo-kan, the former reception hall of the Kujo family of court nobles, stands in the museum garden and is not open to visitors. For this session, you draw inside it.
The session
Four parts, sixty-five minutes.
You draw with a brush pen, first on practice paper and then on two shikishi boards: one animal manga, one Edo-style portrait.
About 10 minutes
Meet the Choju-giga
After a short introduction, the artist walks you through a replica of the first scroll: how the rabbits, frogs and monkeys move, and how a pose alone can tell a joke.
About 20 minutes
Draw an animal manga
Cast a rabbit, a frog or a monkey as your hero. Try out ideas on practice paper, then draw your single-panel story on your first shikishi board.
About 25 minutes
Draw an Edo-style portrait
Look at faces and expressions in Hokusai Manga. Then pair up and draw each other, adding an Edo-period hairstyle, first in practice and then on your second shikishi board.
About 10 minutes
A portrait, for you
To close, Kazuo Maekawa draws a quick portrait of each guest, about thirty seconds each, and hands it to you with your finished work.
What you take home
Your animal manga and your Edo-style portrait, each on its own shikishi board, and the portrait Kazuo Maekawa draws of you.
From Kazuo Maekawa’s earlier workshops
- The photographs above were taken at Kazuo Maekawa’s earlier workshops and events at other venues, not at Kujo-kan, and show different themes from this session.
- Timings are approximate and may shift a little to allow for interpretation.
- Seating is on floor cushions in a tatami room. If kneeling is difficult, a chair can be provided.
The building
Kujo-kan.
A room built for Kyoto court nobility, opened for an afternoon of drawing.
The room began inside the grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, as part of the residence of the Kujo family. It was later rebuilt at the family’s villa in Akasaka, and in 1934 came here, to the museum garden, given by Kujo Michihide.
The Kujo were kuge — court nobility, not samurai, and one of the five families from which the emperor’s regents were chosen. The family took shape around Kujo Kanezane at the turn of the Heian and Kamakura periods, the same age in which the Choju-giga scrolls were painted.
It is not, strictly, a teahouse but a shoin-style reception room: two rooms of ten tatami mats with a veranda on every side. Above the doors, a transom cut from a single plank of Chinese quince into openwork wisteria lozenges. On the alcove panels, a landscape with pavilions attributed to the Kano school.
- Origin
- Kujo residence, Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds
- Relocated
- Kujo villa, Akasaka → museum garden, 1934
- Structure
- Single-storey timber, hipped tile roof, 15m × 10m
- Rooms
- Two rooms of ten tatami, encircling veranda
- Alcove
- Landscape with pavilions, attributed to the Kano school
- Transom
- Openwork wisteria lozenges, single Chinese quince plank
The museum garden is open throughout the year, but its historic buildings are not open to visitors. Entry to Kujo-kan is for booked guests only.
The artist
Kazuo Maekawa.
Professional manga artist, and lead instructor at MANGA DOJO Tokyo in Ikebukuro.
Kazuo Maekawa is a professional manga artist with more than 27 years of experience, since his debut in 1997 in Kodansha’s Young Magazine. He is best known for drawing the manga of Ace Attorney and Ace Attorney Investigations, both published by Kodansha and translated for readers around the world.
Alongside his own work, he teaches. He lived in Hawaii for six years, and has led manga workshops at a university there, at events in Florida and in the Netherlands, as well as in Tokyo, through workshops, training programmes and international education projects.
At Kujo-kan he teaches in Japanese, with an English interpreter beside him in every session.
- Debut
- 1997, Young Magazine (Kodansha)
- Known for
- The manga of Ace Attorney and Ace Attorney Investigations (Kodansha)
- Teaching
- Lead instructor, MANGA DOJO Tokyo · Workshops in Hawaii, Florida and the Netherlands
Who this is for
For anyone who has ever doodled in the margins.
No drawing experience is needed. Visitors from abroad, residents of Japan and Japanese guests are all welcome.
Manga and anime fans
Learn how a professional builds a face and a gesture, from someone who draws for a living.
Families
Open to ages 5 and up. Younger children join with a guardian, who is not counted in the twelve places.
The curious
See where manga’s habits come from, in the garden of Japan’s national museum, a few minutes from its galleries.
Location
Finding Kujo-kan.
Kujo-kan stands in the museum garden, behind the main gallery building — a few minutes on foot from the Main Gate.
13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-8712, Japan
Show the Japanese line above to a taxi driver.
- JR
- 10 minutes’ walk from Ueno Station (Park Exit) or Uguisudani Station
- Tokyo Metro
- 15 minutes’ walk from Ueno Station (Ginza or Hibiya line), or Nezu Station (Chiyoda line)
- Keisei Line
- 15 minutes’ walk from Keisei Ueno Station
- Entrance
- Visitors enter through the Main Gate only
- Enter at the Main GateThis is the only visitor entrance. If you have not bought a museum ticket, the ticket counter is inside the Main Gate Plaza, just here.
- Honkan is straight aheadThe long gallery building facing you is Honkan, the Japanese Gallery. Toyokan, the Asian Gallery, stands to your right.
- Enter the garden beside ToyokanWalk towards Toyokan and follow the path into the garden, which lies behind Honkan.
- Kujo-kanA single-storey wooden building under a tiled roof, with a veranda running around it. We will be waiting for you there.
Allow about ten minutes from the Main Gate, including the ticket check. Museum admission is JPY 1,000 for adults, JPY 500 for university students, and free for visitors under 18 and over 70 — it is not included in the session fee. Diagram not to scale.
Booking
Available sessions
- Session times: 11:00–12:05, 12:30–13:35 and 14:00–15:05.
- Free to cancel until the day before. A 100% fee applies for same-day cancellation or no-show.
- Solo travellers are welcome. One booking is enough — your session runs even if you are the only guest.
- Coming with a young child? A guardian who comes along only to watch is not charged, and is not counted in the twelve places.
Details
Before joining
- Venue
- Kujo-kan, in the garden of the Tokyo National Museum, Ueno, Tokyo — how to find it
- Date and times
- Friday, November 6, 2026 — 11:00–12:05, 12:30–13:35, 14:00–15:05
- Language
- Taught in Japanese, with an English interpreter in every session
- Group size
- Up to 12 guests per session. Minimum one guest
- Who can join
- Ages 5 and up. Younger children can take part with a parent or guardian, who is not counted in the group size
- Fee
- JPY 15,000 per person, tax included. There is no child rate: a child who takes part pays the full fee. Someone who comes along only to watch is not charged
- What you make
- An animal manga inspired by the Choju-giga, and an Edo-style portrait inspired by Hokusai Manga, each on a shikishi board
- To take home
- Your two shikishi boards, and the portrait Kazuo Maekawa draws of you
- What to wear
- Anything comfortable. No special clothing is needed
- What to bring
- Nothing. Brush pens and paper are provided
- Check-in
- Please arrive at Kujo-kan 15 minutes before your session begins
- Seating
- On floor cushions in a tatami room. If kneeling is difficult, a chair can be provided
- Museum admission
- JPY 1,000 for adults, JPY 500 for university students, free for visitors under 18 and over 70. Not included in the session fee — please buy your ticket at the Main Gate
- Luggage
- The museum does not admit suitcases. If you are travelling with one, please leave it in a coin locker at the station
- Booking
- Please use the booking button for your session
- Cancellation
- Free until the day before. A 100% fee applies for same-day cancellation or no-show