One Piece, JoJo & MAO Are Just Some of the Names Announced for Art of Manga U.S. Exhibition

Major manga creators like One Piece‘s Eiichiro Oda, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure‘s Hirohiko Araki, and MAO‘s Rumiko Takahashi will be featured in an exciting new art exhibition in the U.S. held from September 27, 2025, to January 25, 2026.

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The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s de Young Museum has announced the Art of Manga exhibition, spotlighting iconic Japanese artwork and creators, and their influence on global storytelling and social commentary.

The exhibition will showcase over 700 drawings across history, starting with early generation mangaka like Tetsuya Chiba (Representative Work: Ashita no Joe) and Fujio Akatsuka (Osomatsu-kun) to the digital age with an exploration of Kodansha’s K MANGA app and Shueisha’s limited-edition print runs linked to the blockchain via NFTs. The all-star list of featured creators can be seen below.

• Fujio Akatsuka (Osomatsu-kun)
• Hirohiko Araki (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)
• Tetsuya Chiba (Ashita no Joe)
• Eiichiro Oda (One Piece)
• Gengoroh Tagame (My Brother’s Husband)
• Rumiko Takahashi (Urusei Yatsura)
• Keiichi Tanaami (TANAAMI!! AKATSUKA!! / Revolver 2 (Looking in the Mirror))
• Jiro Taniguchi (The Summit of the Gods)
• Kazumi Yamashita (Tensai Yanagisawa Kyoju no Seikatsu)
• Mari Yamazaki (Thermae Romae)
• Fumi Yoshinaga (What Did You Eat Yesterday?)

The exhibition will feature fine art, an introduction to manga through placing it into its historical context, guides on how to read and create manga, explorations into artistic styles, genres, editorial and production processes, the coming-together of manga and identity, digital manga, copyrights, piracy, fandom, Shueisha’s new Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage (SMAH) NFT project, before ending with a colorful collaboration between the late creators Fujio Akatsuka and Keiichi Tanaami.

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“Captivating millions around the world with dynamic graphic narratives, manga is one of the most significant visual mediums of our time,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “San Francisco has long been a gateway for Japanese cultural exchange in the United States, and we are delighted to honor this legacy by showcasing the artistry and power of contemporary Japanese narrative art in Art of Manga.”

“We are living in a time when the narrative shift from text to images is increasingly becoming a reality. By prioritizing images and line over text in its storytelling, manga cultivates an ease of visceral understanding that enables readership from around the world to enjoy the same stories,” remarked organizing curator Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Research Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, University of East Anglia. “Readers become invested in characters and their stories, and manga publishers and artists take their letters and social media comments into account and adapt the ongoing story or create new manga, which often then becomes a forerunner to greater cultural shifts.”

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The first ever "Manga" exhibition in the Americas!!

At @deyoungmuseum in SF, over 700 original drawings by 8 great manga creators will be on display from Sep. 2025 to Jan. 2026.

One of those 8 is, of course, Oda-sensei, and showcasing many of his spectaculor original drawings!!… pic.twitter.com/SLw06DvnxB

— ONE PIECE スタッフ【公式】/ Official (@Eiichiro_Staff) January 27, 2025

Encompassing San Francisco, the Bay Area has long had a connection with Japan — from the Kanrin Maru ship’s arrival in the U.S., and the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition planned by M. H. de Young, the founder of the de Young museum, to the Treaty of San Francisco on April 28, 1952, establishing peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied forces, and now the Art of Manga at the de Young, promising to be one of the most important manga art exhibitions of recent times.

The press release spotlights Yurie and Carl Pascarella’s significant support in organizing the Art of Manga exhibition, generous support by Sandra Bessières and Leslee and Roger Budge, and additional support by Genevieve and Matthew Anderson, The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, and the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco.

Source: Press Release (FAMSF)