専門家会議
Meeting of Japanese Art Specialists

2019 年 1 月 19 日（土） 於東京国立博物館 平成館第一会議室
January 19 (Sat.), 2019; Meeting Room 1, Heiseikan, Tokyo National Museum

January 19, 2019:
Meeting of Japanese Art Specialists
Purpose: This meeting was an opportunity for experienced curators of Japanese art from
North America, Europe, and Japan to exchange information and discuss challenges pertaining to their work.
Venue: Meeting Room 1, Heiseikan, Tokyo National Museum
Chairman and Facilitator: Mr. Atsushi Imai (Tokyo National Museum)
Participants from North America
Dr. Laura Allen (Asian Art Museum of San Francisco)
Dr. Monika Bincsik (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Dr. Andreas Marks (Minneapolis Institute of Art)
Dr. Anne Nishimura Morse (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Dr. Xiaojin Wu (Seattle Art Museum)
Participants from Europe
Dr. Rupert Faulkner (Victoria and Albert Museum)
Dr. Akiko Yano (The British Museum)Ms. Wibke Schrape (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg)
Dr. Ainura Yusupova (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts)
Mr. Menno Fitski (Rijksmuseum)
Participants from Japan
Mr. Tomoyuki Higuchi (Sendai City Museum)Dr. Maromitsu Tsukamoto (University of Tokyo, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia)
Mr. Takeo Oku (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
Participants from the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
Mr. Atsushi Imai (Tokyo National Museum)
Mr. Ryusuke Asami (Tokyo National Museum)
Ms. Satomi Kito (Tokyo National Museum)
Mr. Hideaki Kunigo (Tokyo National Museum)
Mr. Hiroshi Asaka (Kyoto National Museum)
Mr. Rintaro Inami (Kyoto National Museum)
Ms. Melissa M. Rinne (Kyoto National Museum)
Dr. Sakae Naito (Nara National Museum)
Ms. Mihori Okina (Nara National Museum)
Dr. Norifumi Mochizuki (Kyushu National Museum)
Mr. Katsuya Shirai (Kyushu National Museum)
Ms. Tomoko Emura (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties)
Ms. Rei Maisawa (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties)

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Advisers
Mr. Yoichi Inoue (Tokyo National Museum)
Mr. Jun Tomita (Tokyo National Museum)
Mr. Hiroyoshi Tazawa (Tokyo National Museum)
Mr. Yuji Kurihara (Kyoto National Museum)
Mr. Hiroyuki Shimatani (Kyushu National Museum)Ms. Emiko Yamanashi (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties)

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Summary
Mr. Imai began by explaining the purpose of the meeting, which was to discuss how
much information museums should provide for foreign visitors and through what methods. One other goal was to discuss what it means to give visitors an understanding of aforeign culture. As the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games draw near, museums in Japan are being urged to provide interpretative materials in foreign languages
to better serve overseas visitors. Tokyo National Museum (TNM) has been providing
these materials in four languages (Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean) for about
two years. Some argue that detailed explanations, including information about culturalcontext, are necessary for foreign visitors who have no prior knowledge of Japanese art.
There is also the opinion that labels should be long and detailed because visitors canchoose what to read and what to skip.
Following this introduction, Mr. Wozny gave a presentation about multilingual labelsat TNM and noted how the chats are too short. For example, in the Buddhist sculpture
gallery, Japanese chats are 119 characters while English, Chinese, and Korean chats are
one fourth that length, which allows for only one or two points to be made about eachof the works on display. For this reason, TNM curators have been discussing the possibility of providing longer foreign-language labels for valuable works such as National
Treasures and Important Cultural Properties and shorter ones for less-important works.
Moreover, since nearly half of foreign visitors at TNM are Chinese and Korean, withEnglish-speaking visitors accounting for only 25% or less of the total, there is also thequestion of whether it makes sense to prioritize English over Chinese and Korean. Other
questions included whether the current length of explanations was appropriate, howmuch information foreign visitors need, and what needs to be done to provide explanations in Chinese and Korean using audio guides and smartphones.
Participants shared the following opinions about labels: Some works require longer
chats while shorter chats are better for others. Also, it is important to allow visitors
to follow up by looking up more information on the TNM online database. For thisreason, it is essential to provide accession numbers on the labels. The challenge of how
information should be provided in limited spaces is shared by all museums, but someparticipants felt that it is not necessary to give priority to a particular language suchas English. It is acceptable that only vital messages are conveyed to visitors. It was also
noted that when writing labels, curators should describe with enthusiasm what they feel
about each work, make visitors interested in them, and convey the individuality of eachwork.
One particpant asked what Japanese museums’ goals for internationalization are
and pointed out that they need a long-term vision. At the British Museum, foreign
visitors account for 75% of the total. The Louvre has similar figures. She suggested that
if Japanese national museums wish to become internationalized like the BM and the
Louvre, they should design new labels in accordance with a long-term vision.
Furthermore, one participant asked why Japanese museums rotate exhibits so frequently. He noted that handling objects for rotations puts more stress on them, and thathaving rotations less frequently would mean that new labels would not have to be written as often. Japanese curators noted that National Treasures and Important Cultural
Properties are often made of fragile materials and that national museums cannot exhibit
them for more than 60 days annually. They also mentioned that works are rotated sothat their subject matter reflects the seasons.
It became clear from further discussion that it is important not only to think about
how to present information, but also to ensure that the information coincides with theoverall policy of the museum.
Mr. Imai then commented that at the symposium, participants had agreed thatmuseums are not places where a single “correct” interpretation for each object should
be presented. Rather they are places for intercultural negotiation. He asked the curators
what they can do to encourage such negotiation and asked them to share their past
attempts and examples of success. Mr. Imai said that Japanese museums rarely exhibit
manga together with premodern art. He asked how museums abroad have succeeded inpresenting pop culture together with premodern art and what effects this has had.
Exhibitions of contemporary art are successful with younger generations who know
little about Japan because they tend to view art from angles they are already familiarwith. However, careful planning is important when combining traditional art with contemporary art. Particularly in North America, museums tend to emphasize more recent
Japanese culture and hold exhibitions of Japanese fashion and pop culture targeting
younger generations. It was noted, however, that museums should also present traditional art in a way that is enjoyable and stimulating.
One participant then talked about how the British Museum exhibited Osamu
Tezuka’s manga The Three-Eyed One next to a vessel with flame-like ornamentation fromthe Jomon period because the manga included an illustration of what looked very similar to this vessel. However, this does not mean that manga is not displayed haphazardly
throughout the BM galleries. The BM shows manga only when it is related to the works
of art on display. It also exhibits manga not as an object from its collection but as alibrary book.
Mr. Imai then said that for a special exhibition to be held in the spring, the Tokyo
National Museum plans to prepare two different texts: those for Japanese visitors andthose for translation into foreign languages for foreign visitors. This was the first timesuch a plan was created. Mr. Imai then asked whether any other museums had madesuch an attempt.
In response, a curator from the Kyushu National Museum noted that their museum
had reviewed multilingual labels and concluded that explanations for Japanese visitors
should be separate from those to be translated into foreign languages, and that the labels
for foreign visitors should be written concisely. He added that since the previous year,
the Museum had been discussing the question of what kind of labels are most suitablefor foreign visitors.
One participant noted that her institution produced a catalogue in four languages
for a recent special exhibition. She emphasized that multilingual texts do not simply
involve the question of translation but that it is important to write explanations while
examining factors such as their content and length, methods of expression, etc.
The discussion continued to the topic of audio guides at the Seattle Art Museum andthe Nara National Museum. Meanwhile, TNM’s “Tohaku Navi,” is an app that includes
detailed explanations of certain objects. It may be downloaded for free or visitors canrent smartphones with the app preinstalled at the entrance to the Museum.
One drawback is that this app uses text-to-speech software. Recording actual humanvoices would be preferable but the difficulty is that TNM conducts 300 rotations per
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year. Making new recordings for each rotation would be costly and time-consuming. It
was noted that the Museum also needs a long-term vision for the financial aspect of its
operations because it is costly to develop new apps.
Finally, the observers made the following comments: TNM is making its galleries
more accessible by adding labels to all of them, but one should consider what theend goal is. What happens after a visitor “understands?” In addition, TNM adding
foreign-language interpretive materials is related to government policy to attract moretourist to Japan. The government announced its goal of increasing the number ofvisitors to Japan from overseas to 40 million in 2020 and suggested that museums
should function as tourist spots. The government has instructed museums to workon providing multilingual labels for their exhibitions. Today’s discussions provided agood opportunity to thinks about what the internationalization of national museums
really means.
Mr. Imai commented that he looks forward to seeing the participants at the next
symposium in Japan, and this comment marked the adjournment of the Meeting ofJapanese Art Specialists.

意見交換会Feedback Session

2019 年 1 月 19 日（土） 於東京国立博物館 平成館第一会議室
January 19 (Sat.), 2019; Meeting Room 1, Heiseikan, Tokyo National Museum

January 19, 2019:
Feedback Session
Venue: Meeting Room 1, Heiseikan, Tokyo National Museum
Moderator: Mr. Milosz Wozny (Tokyo National Museum)
Abridged Transcript:
Moderator It was 5 years ago that the Tokyo National Museum (TNM) first received
a suggestion from the CULCON Arts Dialogue Committee about holding this kindof exchange program, and we have been carrying out this project since. Until now, theprogram was set up to lead with an international symposium and workshop, followed
by a feedback session then excursion, but this time, we changed the sequence to begin
with the workshop, then excursion, and finally the symposium. The theme also changes
according to the excursion destination. Last year’s excursion was to Nara, so the theme
was ancient Buddhist art. The year before that, we went to Kyushu and ceramic art was
our theme, and this year, the destination was Kanazawa and the focus, kimono andceramics. We would love your frank feedback and opinion on whether the program
preparations went smoothly, what you thought of the content, and so forth.

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Moderator
I agree with your point about narrowing the focus. We’ll also examine
whether we should announce the content to be debated in the Meeting of Japanese Art
Specialists ahead of time.
Laura Vigo
My interest is post-colonialism and how Japanese art is seen from a
non-Asian perspective, and I found this program well thought-out. There were a lot of
surprises. I do think, though, that if the symposium had more participants, we would
have learned about an even greater number of perspectives on reality.
Our collection includes many pieces from the 19th to early 20th century, the period
when Japanese art became known abroad. So in selecting a work, there is a projection ofOrientalist ideas about Japan. The content of this program was interesting, and we wereable to hear different opinions on Orientalism.
Fuyubi Nakamura
I am responsible for the Asia collection at a university anthropological museum. I also teach at the university as a member of the departments ofAsian Studies and Anthropology, and Centre for Japanese Research. Any discussion ofOrientalism, which is the theme of the symposium yesterday, must inevitably include
colonialism. Anthropology in particular is a discipline that has been intimately involved
with colonialism, and I am always mindful of this. Japan is among those that ruled overcolonies, and I think there was a distinct lack of discussion on how Japanese art should
be examined in relation to colonialism. The British Museum has exhibits on the Ainu
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Menno Fitski I imagine that it was difficult to narrow the focus as this is a very complex
theme, but I think the discussion would have gone deeper if we had a more narrowlyfocused content. One other point is that it might have expanded the perspective to haveinvited Japanese art experts from Asia.

and Okinawa, and our museum also has Ainu and Ryukyu materials. I would like to ask
Japanese art experts to consider whether these cultures should be included within theframework of Japanese art. The National Ainu Museum is currently under construction,
and as an anthropologist, I’ve been pondering whether it is appropriate to have Ainu
culture represented as Japan’s national culture at a national museum. We need to consider whether it would be appropriate to use the category of “Japanese” art to discuss
those indigenous cultures.
Moderator
I think there were meaningful discussions during the panel discussionthat came from the perspective you have just brought up.
We should have asked beforehand for experts to contribute comments and questions
at the discussion. We’ll work towards a better-planned design for next year.
Wibke Schrape
I felt that 40 minutes per presenter was too long. I think it would
have been better to limit the main theme presentations to 20 minutes and increase thenumber of presentations. The program itself was very meaningful.
Moderator
I’d like to throw this out to the floor: Do you feel there should be timefor Q&A after each presentation?
Wibke Schrape It would have been better to have a 20-minute presentation followed
by around 10 minutes of Q&A. Trying to respond to all the questions in the panel discussion means that the first question and answer decided the flow of the discussion, andthat can throw the whole thing off-balance.
Wai Yee Chiong
I feel that holding the symposium at an earlier stage would haveallowed for debates based on symposium content during the excursion, reception, andother opportunities. Perhaps we should change the sequence in the future.
Maromitsu Tsukamoto
My field is Chinese art, but I’m interested in people who
study Japanese art abroad. I felt very keenly how little I knew about the kind of exhibitions planned by people who fall into that category and what kinds of things they
consider. For example, there are around 20 people in Beijing who research Heian literature and they hold readings of the Tales of Ise, but I haven’t made much of an effort
to learn the kind of knowledge they have or how they think. I used to be at the TNM;
the founding statement of the TNM was that it would not be a museum that signaled
how amazing Japan was, but a museum capable of contributing to world civilization. I
found myself listening to the discussion, thinking about how I could incorporate different stories. I have a question for everyone: When you plan an exhibition, whom do you
imagine planning it for? And what are you seeking to communicate to Japanese people?
Wibke Schrape
These are tough questions. Normally, we start planning about ayear ahead, based on what works we have on hand. The larger zeitgeist is important. For
example, the Olympics is a major theme for Japan now, and I imagine exhibitions will
be planned in response to that.
The year 2021 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Immediately following the nuclear accident, Germany adopted a policy moving awayfrom nuclear power generation. So I imagine exhibitions in 2021 will include not only
the topic of Fukushima but also criticism and reaction against nuclear power generation.
When planning an exhibition, we consider what the theme will be, what we are
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International Symposium: The Arts of Japan in a Global Context: Beyond Orientalism and Occidentalismpersonally interested in, what society has an interest in, what kind of response, how to
relate these to art, to our collection—things of that sort. We need to think about what
would be the most interesting to visitors.
Fuyubi Nakamura Speaking of the disaster in Tohoku, our museum is also planning
an exhibition about the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, exploring its global
relevance. We’re working in collaboration with museum professionals in Miyagi and
Fukushima to prepare an exhibition that sort of combines anthropological and artisticpresentations.
Monika Bincsik My field is decorative art, so the lecture on handling of textiles andthe workshop on the structure of the kimono were especially absorbing and valuable.
The Met is scheduled to hold an international exhibition that focuses on the Tale ofGenji from March 5 to June 16. There will be a symposium during that time, on April
12th through the 13th, and I hope to see everyone there.

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Monika Bincsik
I’d like to add that 2020 will be the “Year of the Kimono.” The
TNM will also hold a kimono-related exhibition, and a small-scale show on the kimono
as seen from an international perspective will also take place at the Met. I hope to keep
working with all the textile experts to spread the word on the beauty of kimonos.
Hiroyoshi Tazawa The TNM’s exhibition is a broad one themed on kimono throughthe ages, and will take place in the spring of the Olympic year.
We’re also holding an exhibition in the autumn, focusing on what changed in the
100 years between Muromachi period to early Edo period. In those 100 years in Japan,
the country was swept by a tide of European influence and all sorts of things changed:
the very idea of industry, the manner of how the samurai class fought, points of view.
This exhibition is being organized with cooperation from international parties as well,and I hope to see you all there.
Katsuya Shirai
I’d like to talk a bit about two of the exhibitions that the KNM isplanning this year. First is the “Shoguns of Muromachi Period,” which will run from
July through early September. There were 15 shoguns during the Muromachi period,
13 of whom have their likenesses in the Tojiin temple. We are showing all 13 of thesesculptures. Muromachi period is an important period for Japan, a time when aesthetics
unique to Japan were honed and art forms that continue to this day, such as chanoyu,
became established. For those of you attending ICOM Kyoto 2019, I would suggest thata stopover at Fukuoka Airport is in order.
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Rupert Faulkner
I think I mentioned last year that at V&A, we were planning an
exhibition with the working title of “Kimono Fashion.” The show will take place over
4 months, from February 21, 2020 through June—in the run-up to the Olympics. The
exhibition will not just look at the kimono as a fashion item but will familiarize visitorswith the fact that the kimono came to the West in the 17th century and influenced
Western dress. There have been new developments in Japanese fashion in the last 10,
15 years. In particular, young people have come to see the kimono not just as a symbolof old Japan, but something to wear and enjoy. At the same time, Western designers aretaking more cues from the design of the kimono. Apparently, the curator in charge ofthe show believes that no other apparel possesses as much as worldwide influence as thekimono.

We also have an exhibition on the Jomon pottery and dogu (clay figurines) from the
Shakado archaeological site in Yamanashi. This exhibition is slated for late October toDecember. This will be the first Kyushu exhibition of the collection from Shakado, theground zero for the very unique Jomon culture and representative of its peak aesthetic
achievements. After listening to the discussion here, I’m slightly concerned about how
we should provide guidance to visitors, and that despite all we’ve discussed, I’ll be told
the explanation is no good. But the plan is to make this exhibition a truly rewarding
experience for visitors.
Hiroshi Asaka
This morning at the Meeting of Japanese Art Specialists, someone
asked whether restrictions around public display of Japanese art could be slightly loosened. I explained that this would not be feasible as there was no way we could subject
these fragile cultural properties to stress. So instead, we are considering options likereferring works that serve as viable alternatives or are a good fit for the program, increasing the number of parties to collaborate with, and forming collaborative relationships.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs supported the holding of a Japan-America graduate
student conference aimed at providing an ongoing opportunity for exchange between
Western and Japanese students of Japanese art. However, since student exchange isthe purview of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT), the Agency decided to implement an exchange among museum professionals.
This is why we have been holding international symposia on an ongoing basis, and weare grateful to the TNM for putting up with all the work we create for them. Several
exhibitions to introduce Japanese culture in other countries have been launched on thebasis of this program, in cooperation with the Japanese government.
Recently, the Agency for Cultural Affairs established the National Center for the
Promotion of Cultural Properties within the TNM as a part of an organizational overhaul. So, there is a chance that the framework for introducing and communicating
Japanese culture to other countries will change somewhat in the future. Mr. Mita, will
you quickly explain to our international audience the role that the National Center for
the Promotion of Cultural Properties will play, the direction we’ll be taking?
Kakuyuki Mita
The purpose of the Center is to make the cultural properties more
widely known. Our activities have four aspects: promoting public display of culturalproperties, issuing advice on preserving cultural properties from different locales, releasing information, and planning. More specifically, the TNM collection spans a numberof categories, such as objects unearthed all over Japan and works relating to artists andartisans from a number of regions. Till now, these were mainly exhibited at the TNM, but
the first type of cultural property usage promotion is for the works to be exhibited in different locales, with the local public museum or art museum bearing the major exhibition
costs. The utilization department is promoting a project that can take the backgroundand worldview tied to an artwork and present them in an easier-to-understand way tovisitors who are not huge art fans, for example by using different kinds of digital contents
and replicas, actually handling pottery for a full-sensory experience.
Turning our focus to preservation, it’s not as though all metropolitan and prefectural
museums and art museums have sufficient collection storage and preservation readiness.
In particular, there are more than a few museums that have inadequate facilities when it
comes to environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity, which directly affectartwork. We also have plans to dispatch staff from our Center as instructors of appropriate methods of treating the problem and remedial measures.
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closure of the TNM’s collection data and have more people get to know the culturalproperties. By taking the provenance and other information on the approximately
146,000 works in the TNM’s collection and making them widely accessible, we hope tocreate new stories in partnership with the people who see this information.
Hiroshi Asaka
Last year in Paris, there was a major campaign publicizing Japaneseculture. The position of the Japanese government is to continue with these activities
to introduce a new audience to the Japanese culture. But sometimes, the scale is suchthat it can’t be handled by the Agency for Cultural Affairs alone, and we’ve establishedconferences to enable cooperation by other parties. This is what is called for: Local
museums nationwide must build the capacity to provide cooperation, rather than ask
the national museums to carry functions like communicating Japanese culture abroadin their entirety. If there’s now a greater sense of need around Chinese and Korean inmuseum labels, I think it would be an excellent choice to ask professionals from Asia tojoin this conference, and it would also be great to have staff from non-national museums
expand their opportunities to interact with those from abroad.
Moderator
Let’s jump back a bit. There was one feedback about not necessarily
knowing what overseas museums were implementing. We weren’t able to ask you to do
take-home work this time, but for next year, we are exploring the idea of asking every
participant to write a summary of what kind of work they do in the context of theirmuseum, a brief intro for their museum, information about upcoming exhibitions—things of that nature.

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Moderator
One reason for launching this program was the drop in the number ofpeople studying Japanese art. The idea was to encourage more people to study the subject. The target of the program is people who are involved in Japanese art, and perhaps
we should expand the scope to younger graduate and university students, but that might
be difficult at the current juncture. In order to increase the number of people studying
Japanese art, we would probably need to change the program as a whole. One goal ofthis program is to build a network for creating a greater understanding of Japan amongpeople involved in museums. Would anyone like to add any thoughts to this?
Emiko Yamanashi
The Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties
publishes instructional books on handling and preservation environment for Japaneseart. The Agency for Cultural Affairs is working with the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties and others to spread the idea that these properties are
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Motoko Endo As a part of public relations activity for ICOM Kyoto 2019, I attended
one of the international committee meetings held in Europe last year. My takeaway wasthat Japan is a more remote place than we acknowledge. The people I encountered at themeeting work in museums, so they of course have Japanese art around them, but I had
to recognize that in addition to geographic distance, Japan feels far, certainly, and is notalways within reach in terms of economics.
The ICOM Kyoto meeting next year will draw a large number of people involved
in fields close to Japanese art. Can this program seize that opportunity and make a contribution based on what’s been built up over the past 5 years? The declining number ofyoung specialists in Japan necessitates that we do the work of uncovering new talent, andalso offers us the choice of expanding the scope. Does the Secretariat have any questions
regarding ICOM Kyoto 2019, for our visitors from overseas?

for everyone to protect, so we’ll continue our cooperation with the goal of having alarge number of people learn about cultural property preservation and restoration. By
the way, there’s now an English-language report on our website, on restoration done toJapanese artwork abroad. By all means, please use it as a reference.
Moderator
Everyone here has taken photos and made recordings, and there’s often
the question, “Can I put this on my social media account?” or “Can I post this on a website just as informational material?” There are difficult issues tied up in this. Photos andrecordings of cultural properties require a checking process before they can be sharedon websites and other channels. It was pointed out in a previous workshop that policies varied by institution, and there was concern voiced in regards to a particular work,
about creating an impression that there was only one “correct” way to handle artwork. If
someone makes a post on a Western website or a social media account to the effect that,“This is how Japan handles its cultural properties,” it may very well give the impressionthat this and this alone is how it’s done. It should be noted though, that we have no
objections to photos and recordings you made last year being shared with colleagues andpreservation and restoration staff at your institution.
Laura Allen
Our museum has a number of exhibitions relating to Japanese art
planned during the upcoming year, from 2019 to 2020. We kick off with a “Kimono
Refashioned” show in spring, followed by exhibitions on tattooing and ukiyo-e, Isamu
Noguchi and Saburo Hasegawa. We’ll also be showcasing an installation by Tanabe
Chikuunsai IV this summer.
Maya Hara
The topic of video postings to social media and websites just came up,
but isn’t Japan maybe too protective? There’s the problem that Japanese culture, anime,
and TV dramas can’t be shared because of excessive concern about copyright. For example, Korean dramas can be found on popular streaming services in the US, and it’s an
influence on young people. There are a lot of people who begin studying Korean aftergetting hooked on the dramas. Korean dramas owe a lot to Japanese dramas, but thatfact isn’t well known in the United States. I don’t really understand why Japan is fixatedon copyright and isn’t letting these contents out. I think they’d be incredibly popular ifthey were released on social media. Going forward, I think Japan should do things likecreate replicas of cultural properties and have people handle them, generally make more
use of social media to advertise Japanese culture.
Sakae Naito This issue is something we struggle with at the Nara National Museum.
We’re fine with people taking pictures as they like and using these photos, but the difficulty with Japanese cultural properties is that in addition to those objects owned bynational, prefectural, or municipal museums, there are a number of works from temples
and shrines. These objects exist within a faith structure. Among the works in the NNM’scollection is a statue of the monk Shinran. Because Shinran is still venerated, if we were
to exhibit the statue without giving thought to that fact, we would be looking at serious
objections from the Buddhist community. There are complex issues at play. I would likeunderstanding for the fact that we are conflicted about this issue.
There is a Shintō exhibition I’ve been assisting with at the Cleveland Museum of Art,and it’s set to start on April 8. This is by way of adding to what was just talked about interms of the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties, but I’d like tonote that individual museums are also engaged in their own international exchanges.

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Rintaro Inami The same goes for works on loan, in Kyoto. We judge based on what’s
considerate of the owner, so we don’t allow smartphone photography in the exhibition
galleries. That poses a difficulty in using smartphones to multilingualize museum guidance. Works on loan constitute the majority of our collection, and we’re planning an
exhibition devoted particularly to fine works on loan while ICOM Kyoto is being held,
as a way of publicizing and recommitting to the role we’ve played over the last 120 years
in caring for the objects entrusted to us. It’s precisely because we have been loaned theseworks that are the mainstay of Japanese art that we’re able to see them today. That’s thestatement we’d like to make with this exhibition.
Following that, we have a fall exhibition planned on emakimono that provides aview into the works of Heian court culture. There are fewer opportunities for even theJapanese to learn about Japanese art in the courtly style, and we hope to communicate
its appeal.
Moderator If the national museums in Kyoto and Nara want to conduct a handlingworkshop on cultural properties that can’t be photographed or recorded on video, it may
be possible to use replicas and record people interacting with those.
We’re just about out of time, so let’s end the feedback session here. We’d like tothank all our participants—it’s wonderful to see familiar faces every year, and feel the
relationship grow deeper. We’re also very pleased to have welcomed new people to thisgathering. We’re also deeply grateful to those affiliated with the TNM and to everyone
who has supported this program. Thank you.

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意見交換会