TORAFU ARCHITECTS

We designed the exhibition space for The World of Shirow Masamune: The Legacy of The Ghost in the Shell, held at Setagaya Literary Museum. Marking the museum’s 30th anniversary, the exhibition presents key works such as Appleseed, The Ghost in the Shell, Dominion, and Orion, interweaving analog manuscripts, digital prints, the artist’s personal library, and handwritten notes in a multilayered spatial experience.

To create a gradual immersion into Shirow’s narrative universe, a large noren curtain was installed at the entrance—inviting visitors to pass from the real world into the world of the work. A timeline of the artist’s career introduces the exhibition.
Aged panels with peeling marks were reused on the walls to evoke layers of memory, while vivid yellow fluorescent signage was added to guide circulation through striking contrast. These temporal textures suggest a world where remnants of the past inform visions of the future.
At the center of the venue, The Ghost in the Shell is prominently featured, surrounded by semi-transparent scaffolding-like structures made of steel pipes. This architectural framework conveys the exhibition’s themes—technology and the body, city and network—through a sense of lightness and floating tension.
The final section invites visitors to engage with the artist’s thinking process through original sketches, notes, and books, turning the entire space into a site for reflection and discovery.