‘Kinnikuman Museum’ featuring manga superhero opens in central Japan’s Shizuoka Pref.

NUMAZU, Shizuoka — A museum featuring the Japanese manga “Kinnikuman” (lit. Muscle Man), where visitors can enjoy the world of the popular superhero series that started in 1979, recently opened in this central Japan city.

A preview of the “Kinnikuman Museum in Numazu” was held on April 28, a day before its opening. Takashi Shimada, 63, a member of the creator duo “Yudetamago” who is in charge of the original story, commented, “I think that ‘Kinnnikuman”s content is not outdone by Marvel Comics in the United States. It is also popular in the U.S., Thailand, Hong Kong, Spain and other countries, so it should please people from abroad as well.”

“Kinnikuman” is a fighting comic that began serialization in the Shukan Shonen Jump weekly manga magazine published by Shueisha Inc. in 1979. Its characters’ “Kinkeshi” eraserlike action figures became popular among elementary and junior high school students in the 1980s. The series is still running in the Japanese edition of Weekly Playboy magazine.

The museum was built in Numazu apparently because of its proximity to Mount Fuji, the setting of the “tournament mountain” in the manga. Shimada said, “The city is so nice that I want to build a villa here. I hope it will become a place where fans can interact with each other.”

The museum has a total floor space of 840 square meters. The second floor is open with a fee of 1,000 yen (about $6.40) for university students and above and 700 yen (roughly $4.50) for junior high and high school students while the entry to the first floor is free of charge. Forty-five reproductions of original drawings and the life-size figures of characters are exhibited on the second floor.

Visitors can pose for photos while putting the “Kinniku-buster” wrestling move on villain Warsman and at the top secret superhuman training site. On the first floor, there is a section selling figurines, T-shirts, medals and other items, and the museum will soon begin selling Kinkeshi figurines.

Pro wrestler Minowaman Z, who has been appointed director of the museum, said, “We would like to recruit new superhumans and hold cosplay events here.”

(Japanese original by Hiroshi Ishikawa, Numazu Local Bureau)