29Fiscal 2023

Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum
1-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida-ku, Tokyo 130-0015
TEL.+81-3-3626-9974(General Information)

Aug. 16 Fri. 2024 No.29
The Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum is scheduled to close for major renovations by fiscal 2025.

Introducing New Acquisitions
In fiscal 2023, we were able to collect many museum materials. This showcases some of these collections.
(1) Occupations of Edo portrayed by Matsuda Sekka,
master craftsman of oshie (embossed fabric pictures)
A man and a woman in a folding fan shop provide product guidance to a female
customer sitting at the storefront. Beside her sits a craftsman, affixing an illustrated
fan to a fan frame.
The lifelike people, who seem to pop out from the background, are made threedimensional through a technique called oshie, where cloth is affixed after plumpingwith puffy batting.
Compared to the simple background painting, the oshie part is intricately crafted,including clothing, accessories, facial expressions, and hairlines.
The artist, Matsuda Sekka, was a master craftsman of oshie pictures, active in thelate Edo and Meiji periods. This piece is a bound album of 12 pictures featuring
scenes of customs and occupations in the Edo period. Through this work, we cansee the lost occupations of Edo, and appreciate that oshie was a popular genre that
produced a diverse range of works in the past.
Haruki Shōko, Curator
Oshie Gajo (Embossed fabric picture album) Matsuda Sekka Late Edo – Early Meiji period Collection ID 23200077

Zatsue Gajo
(Album of miscellaneous pictures)
Fukawa Kazunori
Early Meiji periodCollection ID 23000639

Ehon Kukuri-zome (tie-dyed picture book) Utagawa Toyokuni
1794 (Kansei 6) Collection ID 23200001–23200002(2) Picture album of FUKAWA Kazunori, an apprentice of Hokusai
in his later years(3) Beautiful kyoka (humorous tanka poem) picture bookwith few copies in existence

Fukawa Kazunori (1824–1876) was the eldest son of the popular fiction writer
Gohensha Hanku. He was apprenticed to Katsushika Hokusai at the age of 12. He
took the name Hokurei (or Hokushin), and worked as an artist, but after the deathof Hokusai, he was asked to do sword fitting designs and switched to the path ofmetalcraft. Kazunori’s name was derived by taking one character each from Hokusai’s
pseudonym “Iitsu” and the name of Chizuka Hisanori, the master who was his teacher.
This picture album was owned by Fukawa Kazunobu (1891–1979), a member ofthe Kazunori School. Kazunobu’s father came from the Miyasaka family of shrine
wood carvers from Suwa in Shinano Province, and he was an apprentice of Kazunori.
His son Kazunobu studied under Kazunori II and III, and was active in the metal
repoussé and chasing field into the Showa period. Kazunobu heard from his father
that Kazunori enjoyed drawing pictures for his apprentices in the evening, after they’dfinished work. Brushstrokes closely resembling his master Hokusai are evident in
Kazunori’s art.

This color-printed picture book, featuring spots famous for sakura (cherry blossoms)
and autumn leaves, brings together pictures of women visiting each site withhumorous tanka poems. The pictures are by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769–1825), reviverof the Utagawa school, and the tanka poems are by the Sukiya-ren circle of poets, ledby Shikatsubeno Magao (1753–1829), who inherited the professional names of ŌtaNanpo after his death.
Kyoka are humorous, witty tanka poems. In the Tenmei era (1781–89), there
was a kyoka boom, with enthusiasts composing poems together across divisions ofsocial class. People also liked to produce works with illustrations for the poems. Thehumorous tanka picture books published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, a figure with close ties
to kyoka poets, are well known, but this book was produced by Izumiya Ichibei whoran a shop in Shibashinmei. Izumiya was a supporter of Toyokuni when he started out
as an artist.
This is an important, rare book for understanding the Edo publishing world in theKansei era.

Ochiai Noriko, Curator

Tandō Masako, CuratorR e se a r c h S t rol l s

Universality at Museums
Text by Tsuda Hiroko, Curator

Printing block (reproduction) for picture of sumo wrestling and “Hands-on Ukiyo-e”“Hands-on Ukiyo-e” with raised texture applied to the print so it can be felt with the fingertips (partial)“Universal” and “inclusive” are words we hear often in recent years, and our museum
is making a broad effort to meet the needs of the diverse people who want to know
more about the history and culture of Edo-Tokyo.
Visitors are often not allowed to touch pieces exhibited at museums in orderto prevent deterioration or damage, but by using “touchable objects” such as
reproductions or models, we can create a space where all sorts of people—even thosewith disabilities—can enjoy the museum’s exhibits. Our Mobile Edo-Tokyo Museum(which goes out into the community) presents reproductions of ukiyo-e printing
blocks, musical instruments used for sound effects in Kabuki, black rotary dial
telephones, and other items that people can hold in their hands.
Many insights for operators can be gained through workshops for people withdisabilities. People with visual impairments often ask “What material is this madeof ?” If you adopt the other person’s perspective, touch the object again, and carefully
observe it while attending to the sensations of your hand, you notice information
about many details you inadvertently overlook due to normally obtaining most of
your information from vision. I saw people with hearing impairments checking thesound of the bell of a black rotary dial telephone via the vibrations transmitted fromtheir hand, and that helped me understand the diversity of information obtained
from the senses.
From these experiences, I gained a strong awareness of the need to consider
universality at museums. We must do this with understanding and respect for thedifferences in people’s senses—how they gather information about things and what
points they have an interest in— without applying simplistic labels like “can or can’t”
or “interested or not interested” to the disabled. This is true not just for disabilities,
but for all kinds of differences, such as language, culture, and age group.
Many museums already have programs to enable participation by anyone,providing the necessary support for each kind of disability, such as subtitles,interpreting, use of tactile tools, and volunteers.
Going forward, we hope to continue in this way, developing supportive approaches
and tools, and enriching programs through interaction with diverse people. The aim
is broader options for enjoying the museum suited to each individual, within theshared space for all that we call a museum.

Fiscal 2023
International Exchange Program Report

Post-COVID International Conferences
Our museum participated in two international conferences in fiscal 2023.
The first was the annual conference of the International Committee for theCollections and Activities of Museums of Cities (CAMOC), one of the international
committees of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), held at the Museumof the City of New York.
Another was the Japan-China-Korea International Symposium on Museum held at
the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, China.
I had the opportunity to participate in these two conferences. The community issues,missions, and other challenges facing museums are diverse, but I was able to engage
in personal exchanges with participants regarding their passion for transmission andprotection of culture, as well as their efforts to address issues in their local communities,
both today and in the future. This experience reconfirmed my appreciation of thesignificance of continuing to interact face-to-face rather than via the web.
Takahashi Hidehisa, Curator

Annual Conference 2023 CAMOC

2023 Japan-China-Korea International Symposium on Museum
Touring the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum
International conferences have returned to normal.