MALICE MIZER 25th Anniversary Exhibition at ESP Museum

I have mentioned the ESP Museum before. It is part of ESP Craft House, located in Shibuya near Tower Records. The museum holds exhibits for musicians along with their displays of various guitars. Following the Deep Sanctuary VI concerts, they put on a very special exhibition of MALICE MIZER guitars and memorabilia. Now, they have shown both Mana's and Közi's guitars, but this time they also had items belonging to Yu~ki and Kami.

A little background first. MALICE MIZER was formed in August, 1992. Going through a few different formations due to vocalist changes, they were one of the more influential visual kei bands of their time. Even though they ceased activities in December 2001, they still have very loyal fans. Starting in 2010, three of the founding members, Mana, Közi and Yu~ki would get together every couple of years at their Deep Sanctuary concerts and play a few MALICE MIZER songs. This year, they performed two full concerts for the first time since 2001. That was Deep Sanctuary VI.

Starting the day after the concerts, ESP Museum opened up with their MALICE MIZER exhibition. Items that were shown or used at the Deep Sanctuary VI concerts were displayed. Here are some of the vintage posters. 

Pardon the quality of these photos. There was a lot of glass and bright lights. Still, I had to try to capture what was on display. Images from various time periods of the band's history. The posters above are from the end of 1999 to 2001. 

Earlier posters. The set along the top include images taken at LA TABLE de Joel Robuchon restaurant in Ebisu. I wrote about it here http://blukats.blogspot.com/2018/04/a-malice-mizer-mystery.html.

Inside video and music were playing from one of their concerts. 

In the middle of the room was part of Kami's drum kit from the concerts. Since I went the first day, there wasn't much there, but items were added in the days after.

Kami's triple cymbals. Rose petals were strewn below the exhibits. Red roses were used a lot in the later band visuals. 

The custom front of Kami's kick drum. Sakura had put this together for the show, using images that Kami had created. Kami was fond of butterflies, and there were butterflies through out the exhibit. 

They also had Mana's and Közi's synth drums that they had played just the night before. The riding crops were also there, at that time they were on the floor below the guitars. 

The guitars made up the bulk of the displays. Far left is Yu~ki's bass, and then various guitars belonging to Közi. Some of these I had seen before because they are usually on display at the museum. The difference was that normally they do not allow photographs in the museum, but for this exhibit they were allowing fans to take photos.

Yu~ki's yellow bass and Közi's various guitars.

And the three. Mana's jeune fille, Yu~ki's Amaze custom, and Közi's Akutsui. 

Since they were allowing photos, I finally got one of Mana's jeune fille blanche. That's a custom paint job by Mana, who dripped red paint on. 

And the jeune fille II that was played the night before. 

There were also current ESP artist series guitars on display. These are one that customers can buy. 

There were a couple used guitars in another room. The jeune fille x lazuli -Cross Ray- was very tempting with it's flashing light. 

Besides the instruments, items that were used in MALICE MIZER music videos were on display. 

The book that was used in the Bel Air ~Kuuhaku no Shunkan no Naka De~ de L'Image film was displayed. Someone did a nice job creating this book and distressing it. The "Pays de Merveilles" book, along with printed pages inside, was also shown in the Gekka no Yasoukyoku video.

Also used in the Gekka no Yasoukyoku video were the Mana doll and Közi marionette. Next to these in the display was Közi's doll that he used when performing the song Brise. My photo did not turn out well. It was all that glass and bright lights. 

The items that received the most attention were ones belonging to Kami, MALICE MIZER's drummer who passed away in 1999. Various drum sticks were displayed including these obviously used ones. 

One of his bags for drum sticks. 

Which someone drew on in blue marker. I wonder who. Difficult to see but it is still visible.  

Some of the flowers they used at their concerts. Red roses thrown at the beginning of the show and the others Mana placed in their musical instruments during Madrigal. My last two posts were about the concert, so there is more information there. 

Along with Mana's teddy bear bag. 

Shown with Mana's tambourine. Both were used during Madrigal in the two Deep Sanctuary VI concerts. That bear has seen a lot of use. It is one that Mana would put candy in and then throw it during concerts. No candy this time. 

The tambourine has LED lights. I didn't notice if it was lit up during the concert.

While visitors were looking at everything, the items that got the most attention were these gloves, 

And this hat. Both items belonged to Kami. I had hoped they would have something of his that he wore, so it was amazing to see this.

Kami wearing the hat with the matching outfit.

Sadly I was not able to return later in the week when they put the costumes, that were worn during Deep Sanctuary VI, on display. I only had two days in which to visit the museum. And that was difficult because of what happened to my right leg at the concert. Still, I was not going to miss this. It was worth seeing. 

Sakura Viewing in the Tokyo National Museum

 

 So how does one view sakura inside a building? The Tokyo National Museum did it by having a number of ukiyo-e and other items that were sakura related. The trick was finding them in the vast buildings.

While many people were taking numerous photographs, I spent most of my time viewing. I do have a couple pieces to share. This is Famous Places of Edo and Murasaki's Genji: Cherry Blossom Viewing at Gotenyama as an allusion to "The Festival of the Cherry Blossoms". The artist was Utawaga Hiroshige, considered the last great master of ukiyo-e

 Another Utawaga Hiroshige piece, Double Cherry Blossoms. I wish my photo did this justice, but the museum is pretty dark inside of course.

A more dramatic piece, Comparisons of True Courage: Kiyohime by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, dated 1856. You may wonder why he has the same last name as Hiroshige. It is because they both were trained as part of the Utagawa school and thus took that name, as other artists trained there did.

Kiyohime has turned into a dragon and is hiding in the bell but the priest who turned away from his love for her is cowering in fear at the sight of the dragon.

Last is part of a screen which has scenes from the Tales of Genji, by Kano (Seisen'in) Osanobu. This as are the ukiyo-e are all from the Edo era. Many of the sakura marked pieces were from that time. Just to note, I went with how the museum had the artist names on the name plates.

Pancakes with Puppies at Cafe Blanket

Of course there is a theme restaurant at the Snoopy Museum. Cafe Blanket, named after Linus' famous blanket. And of course I wanted to get something to eat there. After the Studio Ghibli and David Bowie Is theme restaurants, I would be remiss not to. 

There was a bit of a wait so I spent time looking at the menu. 

I already knew what I was going to order. But seeing all the other cute items, so much temptation. 

 Once in I gave my order to the cashier and then was seated at the long blue table. Which is representative of Linus' blanket. According to the website. For me, it felt a little like being at a big picnic table.

I just went with tea since I wanted to limit sugar. Tough because some of the drinks looked really fun. Still, I got a cartoon coaster with my drink. 

Along with a napkin printed with the comic of how Snoopy dug up Linus' missing blanket. 

As for what I ordered, there was no way I could pass up the Snoopy pancakes. Served with grape jelly and peanut butter. Really cute but I was surprised they were not warm. Still they were good and the cereal and fruit was very tasty.

Cafe Blanket has a number of cute and tasty looking items. One fun thing is they serve some meals in white ceramic dog dishes. I forgot to put the website for the Snoopy Museum on my last post so here it is http://www.snoopymuseum.tokyo/. The last day for the museum is September 24th.

When There is Rain There Might be Peanuts

 So why was I in Azabujuban? To go to a place in Roppongi. Up this steep hill.

Because it was a rainy day and that meant going to places on my rainy day list. Last year it was David Bowie Is, the year before the Studio Ghibli exhibit. This year it was a place I had thought about for a couple of years. But then I found out it was closing in a couple of months. So it moved to the top of my list. The Snoopy Museum.

It may seem strange that a person raised in California would go there since Charles Schultz lived in Santa Rosa, California and yes I've been there. But then, people from California go to Tokyo Disneyland. And when the outside of a building looks this cute...

 Outside there was also a food truck serving hot dogs and other treats. I would bet that if the weather was better they would have had a line of people buying food.

Since it was a weekday I wasn't worried about getting in without a reserved ticket. In fact it was nice how uncrowded the museum was. It made it easy to see this mural made up of Peanuts comic strips. 

Along with this life size Snoopy and Woodstock on top of Snoopy's dog house. 

It was neat how they had a lot of photos from Charles Schultz's life. Bilingual labels also were good. 

And the first Peanuts cartoon. Before my time. Cute how round everyone looked. 

I think they used "Happiness is a warm puppy" for years. I remember having a little book with this as the cover as a kid.

I couldn't help but laugh out loud at some of these. 

Snoopy is a push-over for cookies. 

 Strange but popular super tall Snoopy. I bet cats would love this.

People liked the little interactive art pieces. Lots of selfies going on. 

Of course Snoopy can speak 日本語.

I still laugh when I see this. The theme of the exhibit was love and boy did they play it up.

 More art to interact with on the internet.

I remember these pendants. I remember a number of Peanuts related items when I was growing up. I remember I had a cook book and a little plush Snoopy who I took with me on trips.  My parents subscribed to the Sunday LA Times and as a kid my part of the paper was the comics. Front page top comic was Peanuts. I grew up with this. So it was reminiscent to see all this, even in Tokyo.

And the rain mural was appropriate for my visit. 

Of course there was a store at the museum. With so much Snoopy related gear. I was good and only bought a couple of things. I have a hard time resisting Gaufrettes. And with Faron the cat on the tin, no way was I not going to get this. 

Faron is one of the few things that Snoopy had no idea how to deal with. And this image is so adorable. Of course he got the vanilla cookies. 

And kitty Faron adorned the strawberry cookies.

So that was a nice bit of time I spent at the Snoopy Museum. A place that reminded me of my childhood and still makes me smile now. Next is a place related to it, Cafe Blanket. Because pancakes.