Research on the Whereabouts and Market Transactions of Original Drawings by Hayao Miyazaki

Abstract

Since 2024, the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan has been seeking to identify creators and works of manga and anime whose production materials should be prioritized for preservation in a planned archive facility. The author has been participating in this discussion. In the case of anime, however, many materials, including those from prominent creators and works, have long left studio control and are now dispersed among former staff or circulating on the market. This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing policy discussion by examining the whereabouts and trade patterns of original drawings by Hayao Miyazaki. Based on interviews with Studio Ghibli archival staff and former collectors, as well as analysis of auction records, the study finds that Ghibli began systematically preserving production materials from the 1990s onward, whereas earlier items were largely taken home by staff. Moreover, auction prices for drawings attributed to Miyazaki rose sharply around 2020, and since 2021 their median hammer price has shifted to around two million yen.