Snoopy Museum Tokyo

An American cartoon has taken life in Japan with the opening of Snoopy Museum Tokyo, in the Roppongi district.

As well as exhibitions, the museum shop Brown’s Store will sell exclusive items, while Cafe Blanket will serve food and beverages with a West Coast twist.

It is the first satellite museum of the California-based Charles M.Schulz Museum and Research Center, named after the comic-strip cartoonist who created Snoopy the dog in his Peanuts series.

Once every six months, until September 2018, Snoopy Museum Tokyo will exhibit original comic strips and other artworks from the collection of the Charles M. Schulz Museum. At the opening exhibition, My Favorite Peanuts, there were about 150 items chosen by Schulz’s widow Jean, including original comic strips.

The Brown’s Store will offer more than 500 original items, ranging from stuffed toys, stationery and homegoods to foodstuffs, all developed specially for the Tokyo museum.

Cafe Blanket will feature a “Snoopy Dish Component” comprising sandwiches, mini corn dogs, potatoes and peanut butter. Pancakes, pizza and “My Sweet Babboo”, a milkshake that appears in works Mrs Schulz chose for the exhibition, will also be served.

Like the original, Snoopy Museum Tokyo will show the achievements and personality of Charles Schulz through changing exhibitions, seasonal events and workshops. There will be new original content every six months, curated by the Charles M. Schulz Museum. These will include early comics drawn before Peanuts, such as the Li’l Folks cartoons, animation art, Vince Guaraldi’s jazz music from animated Peanuts cartoons, and rare vintage Peanuts memorabilia. Unpublished sketches and artwork by Schulz will be displayed in a special section.

Mrs Schulz says Peanuts has been loved by Japanese people for more than 40 years.