“Makoto Shinkai Exhibit –Makoto Shinkai’s World Seen Through the Feature Films– ” China / Beijing

Venue: Japan Foundation Beijing Japanese Culture Center
Dates: March 7, 2015 ~ March 29

The first in a series of exhibits to make their rounds throughout China over three years, sponsored by the Japan Foundation. It featured The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices and The Garden of Words with exhibits showing the entire production process through storyboards, character designs, animation layouts and keyframe copies, and theatrical posters. Visitors were able to take commemorative photographs in the works’ background art and view screenings of the works’ making-of documentaries as well as director and cast interviews.

“Makoto Shinkai Exhibit –You are Half of This World– ”Ooka Makoto Kotoba Museum

Venue: Ooka Makoto Kotoba Museum
Dates: June 28, 2014 ~ October 19

Featured Shinkai’s four works that are centered on daily life, including The Garden of Words, 5 Centimeters Per Second, She and Her Cat and Crossroads. Display included storyboards and animation keyframes from the four works as well as a stereoscopic display showing the layers making up a scene from the film and a short movie showing the making of the exhibit’s original poster art. A sculptural “word” exhibit of actual phrases used in the works and the lyrics of Crossroads was also held, effectively utilizing the venue’s space.

“The Garden of Words” (Novel)

Publisher: KADOKAWA / Media Factory
【Hardcover】
Publication Date: April 11, 2014
Price: ¥1,500 + tax

The novelization of The Garden of Words, written by Makoto Shinkai himself. The novel presents an expansion of the film’s world, with emphasis placed on the untold stories behind certain characters or episodes from the film. Each chapter is described by an accompanying Manyoshu poem, chosen to fit the image of that chapter. Originally serialized in the magazine “Da Vinci” from September 2013 to March 2014.

The Garden of Words novel website

“The Garden of Words” Artwork Exhibit

Venue: Nara Prefecture Complex of Man’yo Culture
Dates: March 9, 2014 ~ May 11

This exhibition was held at a center devoted to the appreciation of ancient Manyoshu poetry due to the central role played by a Manyoshu poem in The Garden of Words. Exhibition featured stills, animation keyframes, storyboards and image boards.

“Makoto Shinkai Works Artwork Exhibit” Kotobukiya Fukuoka Tenjin

Venue: Kotobukiya Fukuoka Tenjin [Kotobukiya Base / Tenjin]
Dates: July 24, 2013 ~ August 4

Exhibition featuring stills from Shinkai’s works from She and Her Cat to The Garden of Words as well as original artwork, storyboards, image boards and posters from the works’ original releases.