Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology

Opposite Wawel, on the other side of the Vistula, stands a building with an undulating roof designed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. The Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology exists thanks to the film director Andrzej Wajda, who gave the entire Kyoto Prize he received in 1987 towards its construction. Inside are exhibitions of art from Japan and the Far East, and on Tuesdays admission is free.

History: from Jasieński's collection to a museum

In 1920 the collector and critic Feliks Jasieński gave the National Museum in Kraków his collection of Japanese art, numbering more than 6,500 objects. For decades there was nowhere to show it. The one exception was an exhibition in the Cloth Hall in 1944, seen by the 19-year-old Andrzej Wajda, who became fascinated by Japanese art.

More than forty years later Wajda decided to build a home for the collection. The project was backed by the city of Kraków and the Japanese government, and the East Japan Railway trade union contributed about one million dollars. The centre opened on 30 November 1994. In 2002 it was visited by the Japanese imperial couple, Akihito and Michiko, and since 2007 it has operated as a museum.

Architecture

Isozaki donated the concept design, and in Kraków Krzysztof Ingarden, Jacek Ewý and the JET Atelier office worked on it. The building had to sit well in the view from the Wawel Hill terrace without disturbing the riverside landscape. The wavy lines of the roof echo the meanders of the Vistula. In 2006 Manggha was named one of the 20 most interesting works of architecture built in Poland after 1989.

What to see

• Temporary exhibitions of art, crafts and technology from Japan and East Asia.
• The museum's own collection: contemporary Japanese and Polish prints, kimonos, katagami dyeing stencils, Noh theatre masks and costumes, and drawings and sketchbooks by Andrzej Wajda himself.
• The terrace by the main hall, looking across to the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill.
• The tea pavilion, where a Way of Tea association holds tea ceremony demonstrations.
• Café Manggha in the main hall and a shop with small Japanese items.

Interesting facts

The name comes from Jasieński's pen name, which in turn referred to the Manga, a collection of sketches by Hokusai. Outside Japan the word manga now means comics, but Hokusai's work makes up only a small part of the museum's collection. At Emperor Akihito's special request, an exhibition of woodblock prints by Hiroshige was prepared for his visit in 2002.

Tripto tip

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, with last entry half an hour before closing. A standard ticket costs PLN 30, reduced PLN 20, family PLN 50, and on Tuesdays entry to the exhibitions is free. The address is Marii Konopnickiej 26 in the Dębniki district. From Wawel you can walk here across the Dębnicki Bridge and combine the visit with a stroll along the Vistula Boulevards. Allow 1–1.5 hours for the exhibitions. Online tickets for the following month are released in the last week of the preceding month.