Japanese Museum Research Articles

Transferable Deep Learning Model for the Identification of Fish Species for Various Fishing Grounds

The digitization of catch information for the promotion of sustainable fisheries is gaining momentum globally. However, the manual measurement of fundamental catch information, such as species identification, length measurement, and fish count, is highly inconvenient, thus intensifying the call for its automation. Recently, image recognition systems based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been extensively studied across diverse fields. Nevertheless, the deployment of CNNs for identifying fish species is difficult owing to the intricate nature of managing a plethora of fish species, which fluctuate based on season and locale, in addition to the scarcity of public datasets encompassing large catches. To overcome this issue, we designed a transferable pre-trained CNN model specifically for identifying fish species, which can be easily reused in various fishing grounds. Utilizing an extensive fish species photographic database from a Japanese museum, we developed a transferable fish identification (TFI) model employing strategies such as multiple pre-training, learning rate scheduling, multi-task learning, and metric learning. We further introduced two application methods, namely transfer learning and output layer masking, for the TFI model, validating its efficacy through rigorous experiments.

Visiting to Japanese Lamp and Lighting Museum

Visiting to Japanese Lamp and Lighting Museum

Ударные инструменты айнов

Ainu people are the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Hokkaido. This work aimed to study Russian and Japanese museum funds, analyze musical transcripts performed by the author, and review Russian and Japanese academic literature. The article deals with the percussion musical and sound instruments of the Ainu – idiophones and membranophones. The term “sound instrument” refers to archaic sound instruments that were not usually perceived as musical. They were considered as such only at the moment of their sounding. The author pays special attention to poorly studied instruments, such as a sonic log, sticks, a board, a lacquered barrel lid, rattles, bells, a shaman tambourine, and a beater. The article analyzes the etymology of the names of instruments, structure, material of manufacture, techniques of playing. Most of the Ainu tools were made of wood and had a simple design. Percussion instruments are multifunctional. On the one hand, they performed a musical function – they rhythmically organized a song or recitation. They sounded during the performance of epic legends, various songs. On the other hand, instruments were sacred objects. The author traces their close connection with the worldview, mythological ideas of the ancient people. All of them were associated with the ritual practice: they were used in shamanic rituals, bear holidays, magic actions. Their sounding was thought to provide communication with the spirit world.

Uncertain Future

Uncertain Future

Ударные инструменты айнов

Ainu people are the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Hokkaido. This work aimed to study Russian and Japanese museum funds, analyze musical transcripts performed by the author, and review Russian and Japanese academic literature. The article deals with the percussion musical and sound instruments of the Ainu – idiophones and membranophones. The term “sound instrument” refers to archaic sound instruments that were not usually perceived as musical. They were considered as such only at the moment of their sounding. The author pays special attention to poorly studied instruments, such as a sonic log, sticks, a board, a lacquered barrel lid, rattles, bells, a shaman tambourine, and a beater. The article analyzes the etymology of the names of instruments, structure, material of manufacture, techniques of playing. Most of the Ainu tools were made of wood and had a simple design. Percussion instruments are multifunctional. On the one hand, they performed a musical function – they rhythmically organized a song or recitation. They sounded during the performance of epic legends, various songs. On the other hand, instruments were sacred objects. The author traces their close connection with the worldview, mythological ideas of the ancient people. All of them were associated with the ritual practice: they were used in shamanic rituals, bear holidays, magic actions. Their sounding was thought to provide communication with the spirit world.

Japanese Museum of Anesthesiology: Conditions and Outlook of Museum Collections

Japanese Museum of Anesthesiology: Conditions and Outlook of Museum Collections

Introduction to and Objectives of the Japanese Museum of Anesthesiology

Introduction to and Objectives of the Japanese Museum of Anesthesiology

Rare freshwater sponges of Australasia: new record of Umborotula bogorensis (Porifera: Spongillida: Spongillidae) from the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve in Northeast Thailand

Umborotula bogorensis (Weber, 1890) is a freshwater sponge species that is recorded occasionally, mainly on islands and peninsulas of Australasia. Less than 10 records with morphological descriptions and illustrations have been published so far, and the most recent record is dated 1978. A list of the few voucher specimens from museum collections is provided here together with the rich unpublished Sasaki collection from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, recently deposited in a Japanese museum. The present new record from Northeast Thailand enlarges the geographic range of U. bogorensis to the Indochina mainland. A comparison of historical data vs present Thai records is performed by morpho-analysis (SEM) as well as biogeographic, ecological and climatic data. Results show low variability in shape and size of the diagnostic morphotraits in populations scattered over the wide geographic range. Here we also formally accept the new taxonomic status (rank elevation) of the previous suborder Spongillina as a new order Spongillida. The presence of this potentially threatened species in the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, together with its possible long-term persistence in the Bogor Botanical Garden, may support its conservation. Only a census of the known, extremely scattered populations will define the status of this species.

Ethnic Identity and Gender in Pluralist Perú

In 2011, Japanese-Peruvian Keiko Fujimori (1975- ), daughter of the former president, Alberto Fujimori, almost won presidential elections in Peru. Ollanta Humala (1962- ), who identifies himself as indigenous and as a youth studied in “La Union,” a Japanese-Peruvian school, defeated her. He had been an army officer; Keiko Fujimori, a congresswoman. She now hopes to win in 2016. This would make her Peru's first elected female president. What is the importance of a candidate's ethnicity or gender? Have such identity factors become meaningless or unimportant in Peru -- despite the historical reality of racism and gender inequality? To answer these quite general questions, this article focuses on history, multiculturalism, and law. Key points are enhanced through conversations with present and former state officials, authors, professors, students, and with the coordinator of the Japanese Immigration Museum at the Peruvian Japanese Cultural Center. Peru is a multiethnic nation-state and being a woman is not an obstacle to power.

Evolutionary History of the Extinct Otter Lived in Japanese Islands

Although the river otter (Lutrinae) of Japan was distributed in four main Japanese islands until the 1920s, this animal has not been observed in the wild since 1979. Additionally, the taxonomic status of this otter remains controversial. Previous morphological and molecular genetics studies have suggested that the Japanese otter from the Honshu and Shikoku islands is an independent species of the genus Lutra, namely, Lutra nippon. However, there are pros and cons about this classification. In a recent study, our group determined the mitochondrial genome sequence of the two Japanese otter museum specimens, using next-generation sequencing technology, and evaluated the phylogenetic status of these specimens in the clade of Lutrinae. We suggested that the Japanese otter is of the genus Lutra and that two genetically divergent lineages exist among the Japanese otters living on Honshu and Shikoku. One of the lineages, which diverged from the ancestor of L. lutra at 1.27 million years ago, it should be treated either as the independent species L. nippon or as an independent subspecies of the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra nippon. The other lineage, which diverged from the ancestor of the Chinese population of L. lutra at 0.10 million years ago, was identified as L. lutra. However, in our previous study, we had analyzed genetic material from only one individual in each lineage. Therefore, our results cannot conclusively illustrate the natural history of the Japanese otter. Hence, future studies should use more than one individual to evaluate the genetic divergence of population of the Japanese otter.

The Japanese Museum of Anesthesiology in Kobe, Japan

In 2009, the Japanese Society of Anesthesiologists (JSA) founded the Archives of JSA, which changed into the Japanese Museum of Anesthesiology in 2011. The museum consists of three sections: (1) archives (the collection of historical documents of the JSA), (2) museum (the collection of anesthetic equipment and its related things), and (3) library (the collection of books, journals, leaflets, and related materials). By January 2013, the collections included 2537 Japanese and 1569 foreign language books. JMA collections include 25% of the Japanese anesthesia books published between 1796-2008, making it Japan’s largest collection, with the exception of the National Diet Library of Japan. Most of the Japanese books published from 1796 to 2008 are listed and can be searched through the home page.

The Story of the End of the World: An Alternative Approach to the Future at the Japanese Museum of Science and Innovation

The following discussion is a critical assessment of the “Story of the End of the World: 73 Questions We Must Answer”, an exhibition at the Miraikan. The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on the 11th of March 2011 created the necessity for collective catharsis regarding various threats posed by the future. I will argue that the outcome of the exhibition differs significantly in content, presentation and meaning to the more conventional visions of the future presented elsewhere in the museum.

Richard Lindau y el museo de arte japonés de Barcelona

Richard Lindau resided as a diplomat in Japan between 1866 and 1868, where he acquired in Edo (Tokyo) an extensive and exceptional collection of Japanese art. After being named German consul in Barcelona (1876), Lindau offered his collection to the public by opening his residence in the centre of the city as a Japanese Museum. This paper aims to recover the history of this forgotten collection, which constituted one of the first private museums of Japanese art in Southern Europe.

The Imperial Museums of Meiji Japan. Architecture and the Art of the Nation

In pre-modern Japan there was no museum, not even a word or concept for ‘museum’. Many collections of what now we call works of art existed, but were in the hands of private individuals and temples. The first Japanese museum, today's Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park, did not grow, like many of its European counterparts, out of a wish or need to house and display to the public an already formed collection. Set up in 1871 in the early Meiji era (1868-1912), this museum building and collection resulted instead from the efforts of a few officials. During their travels in Europe in the 1860s they had recognized the importance of cultural institutions like museums and industrial exhibitions for their country's future, and they made the construction of a museum a priority for their new government. Initially, the museum in Ueno was expected to grow into a non-governmental institution like the British Museum or the South Kensington Museum, with independent funding and collections. Thirty years later, however, it came to belong to the imperial house. This jurisdictional change developed gradually from 1886, starting with the transfer of the museum's administration to the Imperial Household Ministry, a department soon to be detached from the constitutional government system and increasingly dedicated to the direct service of the emperor and his household. In 1889, it was named the Imperial Museum (Teikoku Hakubutsukan), although the government still owned the museum building and collection. And, in 1900 that name gave way to the Imperial Household (Teishitsu) Museum. Thus, ‘the Imperial Museums’ of Alice Tseng's monograph in strictly jurisdictional terms existed only from 1889 to 1900, a decade when the Imperial Household as the Museum's administrator constructed two satellite Imperial Museums on its own land in the ancient capitals, Kyoto and Nara.

CHARACTER OF BUILDING PLAN IN OLD TOKYO SCIENCE MUSEUM

The main building of Old Tokyo Science Museum (The Nihonkan of National Museum Nature and Science at present) is a first real science museum which was build in Japan. Director Yasuji AKIHO established “Dynamic Museum” about the new museum design concept which was the conclusion that he researched western science museums. This museum building plan was designed on the Akiho's concept.Akiho's concept was mainly to capable to use museum facilities to activity of “Dynamic Museum”. It was the reason that Akiho intend to include to the lecture hall, library, laboratory, dining hall, because to activity of museum was not popular in Japan, and not understand it's importance. This museum planning concept was one mile stone of the Japanese museum building history.

To revitalize children's learning experience -in domestic and japanese children museum cases-

To revitalize children's learning experience -in domestic and japanese children museum cases-

Creative Particles: An Interview with Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba

Special Introduction by Barbara Pollack Even in this era of global biennials, a presumption lingers that all artists not born (or living or working) in the United States are merely resident-aliens in the territory of art history, immigrants seeking green-card status to attain a place in the western canon. Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba is representative of a new breed of international artist, using a fantastic and daringly beautiful vocabulary to transport viewers to his world rather than proving that he deserves a place in ours. Born in Tokyo in 1968, Nguyen-Hatsushiba trained in the United States (School of the Art Institute of Chicago, B.A.; Maryland Institute College of Art, M.F.A.) before returning to live in his father's homeland of Vietnam in the 1990s. From his base in Ho Chi Minh City, this artist's films have been presented as installations at every major international art exhibition of the past five years, from Venice and Sao Paolo to Moscow and Shanghai. Acutely aware of the rest of the world's view of Vietnam as a warravaged landscape and symbol of American failure, Nguyen-Hatsushiba masterfully transcends these stereotypes by staging his narratives at the bottom of the ocean. These underwater dramas-often featuring contests, such as rickshaw races or painting competitions, impossibly difficult for contestants laden with diving equipment-are simultaneously quixotic and heroic, brimming with festival-like explosions of color and sound too marvelous to be didactic political statements. Yet history can never be extricated from these waters, just as landmines are still dangerously alive along Vietnam's coast line, a very real risk faced by the artist and his crew when making these films. The sea's anti-gravitational atmosphere transforms these tests of bravery and endurance into graceful balletic performances proceeding across the screen at a meditatively glacial pace. In this manner, Nguyen-Hatsushiba insinuates himself into, rather than invades, our collective unconcious, replacing visions of Rambo with far more subversive and magical images of Vietnam. And that is how and why he is considered one of the most important and influential artists working in Asia today. Interview by Drake Statesman In this interview, it becomes obvious that the video installations of Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, though often visually dream-like and ethereal, are conceived and executed as plain, hard work. He sees the world around him as an ever-generating blend-if not blur-of what is solid and what is ephemeral, what is creative and what is obstructive, what is new and what is old. Nguyen-Hatsushiba's mixed heritage is often highlighted in art critiques. However, this heritage, which he calls nothing new, is not in the forefront of his art. Rather it seems to compose his thinking process itself. His ideas follow an often complicated series of adaptations. His famous underwater cyclo piece, Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam-Towards the Complex-For the Courageous, the Curious and the Cowards (2001)-which seems so representative of his work, and screens so seamlessly-began with a desire to paint in outer space, then evolved into an aborted performance in the water tank of a Japanese museum, only to end up as an embodiment of his signature look: a group of people struggling under the blue waters of Vietnam. His work is about connection, but not in the easy way that the use of water implies. Rather, Nguyen-Hatsushiba perceives union within the most seemingly disconnected things-dust, bubbles, arbitrary motions-and he respects that they remain disconnected, as it were, because they each carry a morphic resonance. They are not apart. Nguyen-Hatsushiba's work is a reflection of this unity. As he says, I thought maybe making art can also be something close to real life. So identity, often construed as separate or fragmented-especially within the kind of national experience that he memorializes (diasporas, loss of social stature, government cover-up)-is for him something that cannot be lost. …

Issues and Expectations for Digital Archives in Museums of History: A View from a Japanese Museum

Digital archiving systems promise to advance the ability of museums to preserve and utilize information about historical and cultural materials. Museums have a large number of materials that require preservation from future degradations for a long period as long as possible. On the other hand, it is common, and important to use these materials for a variety of purposes, i.e., exhibitions, investigations, researches, education, and so on. In this article, several issues and expectations for digital archiving systems used in museums of history are discussed.In museums of history, digital archives enable more flexible exhibitions that satisfy visitors' needs, more deeper investigation and research, and a more convenient means of managing materials in comparison with conventional archiving systems. They also promise to increase accessibility to materials at lower cost. At the same time, digital archiving systems must work alongside and with conventional ones. The author hopes that this article will help with the effort to build better digital archiving systems.

Airborne particles in the Miyagi Museum of Art in Sendai, Japan, studied by electron probe X-ray microanalysis and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis.

The presented work provides baseline data on the existing airborne conditions in the Miyagi Museum of Art in Sendai, Japan, during the summer of 2000. The chemical composition, size and indoor and outdoor origin of the suspended particulate matter were identified using a number of advanced X-ray techniques, such as Electron Probe X-Ray Microanalysis (EPXMA) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis (EDXRF). Our results, to the best of our knowledge, represent the first detailed study of the chemical nature of the indoor particulate matter in a Japanese museum and, as such, may contribute to future improvements of the air quality inside museums and to the lasting conservation of works of art.

博物館職員からみた各部空間の建築的問題点の考察 : 博物館に関する建築計画的研究IV

The object of this paper is to survey on architectural problems of Japanese museum, and to grasp them in quantity. The definite results of this paper will be practical and available data in museum's design and planning. The contents of this paper are as follows. 1. Introduction. 2. Outline of the investigation. 3. Outline of investigate museum. 4. The present condision and problems in several departments by classificasion and structural scale for museums. 5. Conclusion.