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A stunning Howl's Moving Castle tapestry, titled “Castle at Dusk” and taken from an iconic opening scene from the Studio Ghibli film, has arrived in Japan. The image depicts the sometimes mechanical but mostly magical castle rising through the hills of Ingary, with an elderly Sophie and Turniphead gazing at its colossal size below.
According to PR Times, the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art has announced that it has temporarily purchased the large Howl's Moving Castle tapestry “Castle at Dusk” to be displayed in the museum's lobby. The tapestry depicts a moment early in the film when Sophie, now aged by the curse of The Witch of the Waste, arrives at Howl's castle, where she decides to jump in for warmth and make herself useful by becoming the abandoned castle's maid, setting the events of the film in motion.
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The special exhibition of the tapestry coincides with the museum's “Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition,” which begins on July 2, 2024, and will run until September 25, 2025. After that, the artwork will return to France. The giant tapestry is five meters high and wide, easily dwarfing representatives from Studio Ghibli, the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, and the Aubusson artisans. Admission to the exhibition is free.
Many may be surprised to learn that this tapestry is not a domestic Japanese work of art, but a Sino-European cultural collaboration between Studio Ghibli and the Centre International de la Tapisserie Aubusson in France. The joint partnership came about when the centre contacted the famous animation studio in hopes of creating tapestries based on Miyazaki's most beloved works, known as the L'imaginaire d'Hayao Miyazaki en tapisserie d'Aubusson series. A partnership was struck between the Cruese Museum and Studio Ghibli to create four or five pieces using the skills of craftsmen in Aubusson, France.
In January 2023, the Cruese Museum unveiled the tapestry “The Banquet of No-Face,” based on a scene from the Oscar-winning film Spirited Away. The 7.5-meter-long, 3-meter-high tapestry depicts a chaotic scene in which the protagonist, Chihiro, fights back against her silent companion, No-Face, who has succumbed to the gluttony that has overtaken the bathhouse where she works.
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The collaboration between the French artisans and Studio Ghibli has produced four expansive and detailed tapestries to date, but Howl's Moving Castle is the only one to be brought to mainland Japan. Aubusson tapestries are recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, and the International Aubusson Tapestries Center was established to preserve this unique way of working with textiles. Of the collaboration, Studio Ghibli CEO Shinsuke Nonaka said, “It is intricate, but has a warmth that can only be achieved by hand, and its large size makes it very impressive.”
Films featured in the piece include the aforementioned Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle, and an as-yet-unrevealed Howl-centered tapestry called “Howl's Fear,” which is expected to be completed sometime this year. Two more tapestries based on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and My Neighbor Totoro are planned for the future, with the Centre International de la Tapisserie Aubusson recently posting images of a work-in-progress tapestry featuring Mei sleeping on Totoro's belly set against a serene forest backdrop.
Howl's Moving Castle
When an insecure young woman is cursed with an old body by an evil witch, her only chance to break the curse is with a cocky but insecure young wizard and his companions in his moving castle with legs.
Release date June 17, 2005
Studio Studio Ghibli
Cast Takuya Kimura, Tatsuya Gashûin, Chieko Baisho
Running time 1 hour 59 minutes
Production company Buena Vista Home Entertainment, DENTSU Music and Entertainment, Mitsubishi.
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Source: PR Times