National Museum of Ethnology, Japan: Intensive Course on Museology

Research Center for Cultural Resources | Education

Intensive Course on Museology

As we enter the 21st Century, we owe it to the country and to the world to find new ways to construct our representation of culture. It is the duty of a museum to create new ways to meet the demands for such representation and until now apart from the Museum there have been very few places where people could study the theory and practice of Museology.

For ten years, from 1994, Minpaku conducted a course on Museology under the sponsorship of JICA (the Japan International Cooperation Agency). It rendered great service in improving the technology of many museums in developing countries and in constructing a global network between Museums. In addition, we were able to learn much from the participants in these courses.

In 2003, JICA was re-launched as an independent administrative organization and in April 2004, Minpaku joined the National Institutes of the Humanities as part of the Inter-University Research Institute Corporation. Subsequently, we reviewed our activities over the last 10 years, and after completely revising the content, started once again to offer a new Intensive Course on Museology. At the request of JICA, the course is conducted by Minpaku in cooperation with the Lake Biwa Museum in Shiga Prefecture. Naturally, we get much cooperation from various museums when it comes to actually conducting the course.

The International Network of Museums to which Minpaku belongs is an essential link in bringing trainees from their home countries. In addition, Minpaku’s innovative ways of displaying information and documentation contribute greatly to the trainees’ experience. However, it is a fact that many trainees have problems in collecting, arranging and displaying their own communities’ artifacts and there is a limit to the help which Minpaku can provide. That is why we offer this course in cooperation with the Lake Biwa Museum which also has a reputation for innovative methods and for developing effective courses in this field of Museology. The instructors of this intensive course are specialists who have made a career in this field.

The content of the previous course was somewhat ambiguous, so that museum curators who were interested in developing their management skills were mixed with museum technicians who were interested in learning new techniques of preservation and display. This caused problems in running the course.

The new course places emphasis on providing content which explicitly meets the needs of each of the trainees. Although the name of the course and its organization were altered, the purpose of the course remains unchanged, that is to develop interaction and exchange through museums around the world.

List of Participants