Tuesday Morning Museum Seminars in Tokyo (via Zoom)
/ スミソニアン－明治オンラインセミナー
[日本語はこちら]
Since November 2020, the Smithsonian Institution and Meiji University have hosted a Museum Seminar Series every Tuesday morning Japan Standard Time (9-10PM, EDT) via Zoom. From conservation practices in Southeast Asia to a samurai sword on the wall of Chief Red Cloud’s home in South Dakota, the speakers shared their unique insights on the role of museums around the Pacific Rim and beyond.
On this website, you can watch recorded videos of the seminars.
For inquiries about future events, contact us at islands@meiji.ac.jp contact us at islands@meiji.ac.jp
This Zoom series was co-hosted by Smithsonian's Asian Cultural History Program and Meiji University's Institute of Island Studies with support from U.S. Embassy Tokyo.
(Watch it on YouTube) November 14, 2020: Paul Michael Taylor, Robert Pontsioen (Smithsonian)
The Smithsonian and Japan: Past, Present, and Future
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History holds a variety of ethnographic collections from all over the world. In this online public seminar, we invite Dr. Paul Michael Taylor and Dr. Robert Pontsioen to introduce us to the Smithsonian’s Japanese collections and recent research being carried out by the Smithsonian’s Asian Cultural History Program.
(Watch it on YouTube) March 30, 2021: Douglas Mudd (Museum Director, Edward C. Rochette Money Museum)
Money as Material Culture: Curation and Collections at the Money Museum
Money has existed for thousands of years, in many forms. Shells, feathers, cattle and even certain rocks were used before metal money, but they lacked durability, or were difficult to subdivide into smaller units or transport. The discovery of metallurgy, especially of precious metals—copper, silver and gold—began a monetary revolution in Asia, North Africa, and Europe during the 2nd millennium BC. Yet metals were initially still weighed and measured at each use, without a fixed form or use as money. The independent invention of coinage in Asia Minor, Northwestern India, and China during the mid-1st millennium was a major turning point in the material culture of money. Coinage used the concept of denominations—i.e. pieces of metal with fixed weight and purity—and combined that with marks identifying the issuing authority, making coins easier to use, identify, and regulate. Coins became important clues for identifying the cultures that issued them, not anonymous pieces of bullion. Given the large numbers of coins produced over the last 2,600 years and their durability, ensuring a high survival rate, coins are among the most ubiquitous historical artifacts. The long history and vast range of differences in world coinage present numerous curatorial and collection management challenges. Yet coins, when properly assembled, studied, and presented, with an understanding of the symbolism and inscriptions on them, are truly “history in your hands.”
Bio: Douglas Mudd is the Curator / Director of the American Numismatic Association’s Edward C. Rochette Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is responsible for developing, planning, and content of the Museum’s exhibition program and the organization and care of the ANA collections. He has created dozens of numismatic exhibits as needed for the museum and for the ANA’s semi-annual conventions. Among his major exhibitions are Barter, Bits, & Dollars: The Money of Colonial America, The Money of the World Today: A Numismatic Perspective of Global Society, The Die is Cast: Money of the Ancient World and Coins, Crown and Conflict. His recent work has expanded the museum's exhibits into the virtual world of the internet including Trenches to Treaties: World War I in Remembrance and Money of Empire: Elizabeth to Elizabeth which are available at https://www.money.org/money-museum. He authored All the Money in the World in 2006, as part of the Smithsonian book series, as well as exhibit catalogs and numerous brochures and articles. He teaches courses on numismatics at the ANA Summer Seminar and has lectured at summer programs and regular classes at Colorado College.
(Watch it on YouTube) April 6: Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth (Ohio State University / Smithsonian)
Community Ethnography and Sustainable Engagement: Case Studies from Appalachia
What possibilities for collaborative work exist in studying craft? What lessons can be applied from craft to community engagement projects? This presentation explores case studies of ethnographic practice to understand how sustainable work can be maintained with communities. From the craft of musical instruments to transformation of rural spaces, I explore how methods of engagement and collaboration open new venues for mutually beneficial and sustainable work in cultural heritage and material culture studies. I draw from examples in my work in the Appalachian region of the United States where many people face uncertain futures due to changing economic and social conditions. A place-based approach to the craft of musical instruments from local forests and rebuilding local economies serve as the central focus of this work. At the individual researcher and institutional scale, this presentation explores methods and questions that arise in long-term, engaged projects with individuals and communities.
Bio: Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth is a cultural anthropologist and folklorist specializing in community engagement and craft traditions in mountain communities. He currently serves as the Public Folklorist and Postdoctoral Scholar at The Ohio State University Center for Folklore Studies. He has researched musical and material craft traditions in global contexts through his work with the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Cultural History Program and the University of Kentucky Department of Anthropology and Appalachian Center, where he earned his PhD in 2019. His recent research interests have involved craft economies and production in global mountain forests, with a focus on Carpathia and Appalachia and collaborative methods. His forthcoming book, Finding the Singing Spruce explores the connections between the meaning of craft work and forest environments in the craft of musical instruments in West Virginia.
(Watch it on YouTube) April 20: Yuji Tanaka (Shizuoka University of Art and Culture)
Observations on Funding and Fundraising for Museum Activities: Perspectives from my Study Visit at the Smithsonian and my Experience at the Edo-Tokyo
Based on observations and interviews during my research at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) and my experience as a staff member of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, this seminar outlines and compares some current fundraising approaches and strategies at museums in the U.S. and Japan. A comparative perspective is employed to consider various solutions to the funding issues that face museums in both countries, including the role of external organizations in sponsoring and funding museum exhibitions, programs, and other activities. The research on which this talk is based was funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.
Bio: Yuji Tanaka is an associate professor of the Faculty of Cultural Policy and Management at Shizuoka University of Art and Culture.
April 27: Robert Pontsioen (Smithsonian)
Solving a Smithsonian Samurai Mystery: The ‘Living Dolls’ of Japan, Lost and Found
The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair was a global spectacle unlike anything the world had ever seen. To showcase its history and culture at the Fair, Japan sent a myriad of arts, crafts, and other treasures. Among these were eight ikiningyō (生人形) or ‘living dolls’ – lifelike mannequins that depict a unique Japanese aesthetic – including an intriguing samurai diorama set piece. The Smithsonian purchased these mannequins upon the Fair’s completion and later exhibited them intermittently at the US National Museum. After being removed from display, however, these enigmatic mannequins disappeared and were presumed lost for decades. In this talk, I trace my recent rediscovery of these artifacts, and explore their place in the artistic and cultural milieu of late 19th century Japan and America.
Bio: Dr. Robert Pontsioen is a research fellow in the Asian Cultural History Program at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He is an author of books and scholarly articles about contemporary craft practice and the role of museums in preserving and promoting cultural heritage, and has carried out ethnographic and museum collections research in Japan, Korea, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, and the USA.
(Watch it on YouTube) May 18: Hanna Szczepanowska (West Virginia University)
The Conservation Science of Rattan
Rattan, a climbing palm of the tropical region of Southeast Asia, supplied material for objects of myriad purposes including ceremonial, religious, utilitarian, and artistic. They are represented by contemporary artworks and artifacts in Museums worldwide including the Smithsonian Museums; the Smithsonian collection shows reverence for rattan’s extraordinary properties. The beauty and value of rattan is defined by its surface, therefore understanding its characteristics is essential to the development of an informed preservation strategy. How do we identify rattan? What defines its surface? Rattan morphology and surface chemistry were characterized by multi-scale analytical, laboratory methods. The biogenic silica which constitutes this lustrous surface on rattan, was examined in fresh samples from Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Malaysia and compared with rattan from historic artifacts. The methods of processing rattan which have a direct impact on the siliceous layer were recorded during field work in SEA region. That, and the chemical analysis of the biogenic silica layer, provide a basis for preservation of rattan artworks and artifacts in the museum context.
(Watch it on YouTube) May 25: Curtis Sandberg (Apablasa Global Connections - Strategic Cultural Engagement)
An Archaeologist in the White House: Perspectives on the White House Collection as Material Culture
People around the world interpret the function and meaning of the White House in different ways. It is a well-known icon, like other easily recognized structures, and images are ubiquitous. These are printed on U.S. currency; depicted in film and television; broadcast on global news; and included in artistic renderings. In practical terms, the White House serves three key functions: it is an office and a venue for state ceremonies, the residence of the president, and a living museum of American history. The latter is characterized by a collection of furniture, decorative objects, fine art, and ephemera. A White House Office of the Curator oversees its study and conservation, while a public outreach institution assists in chronicling this building’s history, key events from the past, and the lives of U.S. presidents, their families, and workers. This presentation addresses the inception and management of the White House collection, beginning with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961, examines its growth over time, and contemplates objects – and the edifice itself – through a perspective on material culture that is more archaeological and artifact-driven than aesthetic or art historical. In this light, the White House and its holdings can be viewed as a basis for discussions about American history, society, tastes, and culture. We begin in the 1790s by considering the building’s design, examine aspects of the collection that represent different epochs, and explore the significance of the White House for a global audience. The talk also intends to encourage future conversations with international experts about how they manage and teach about their own leadership residences, and ideally can serve as a basis for cooperation, scholarship, and activities that investigate unique national symbols across borders.
Bio: Dr. Curtis Sandberg is an expert in cultural diplomacy and the founder of a consulting service that helps U.S. and international organizations to implement public-private cultural partnerships.
He is the former Director of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History and Senior Vice President of Educational Resources at the White House Historical Association. During his tenure, Sandberg developed public programs, domestic and international coalitions, historic content, exhibitions, and education platforms for scholars and teachers. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President for Arts and Cultural Programs at Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C., and established the Meridian Center for Cultural Diplomacy, which strengthens U.S. engagement abroad.
He holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in anthropology from Harvard University; a B.A. in classical archaeology from the University of California; and carried out graduate studies at the University of Padua, Italy. Sandberg was awarded a Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities; a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Fellowship; a Sinclair-Kennedy Traveling Scholarship from Harvard University; and a Rotary International Foundation Fellowship. He advises non-profit cultural organizations and collaborates with the Asian Cultural History Program at the Smithsonian Institution.
(Watch it on YouTube) June 8: Ken'ichi Sasaki (Meiji University)
Archaeological Heritage Management in Japan
In Japan more than 460,000 archaeological sites are registered, and some 9,000 archaeological excavations take place every year. In this presentation, I will introduce the system of archaeological heritage management and its practice. More than 96% of archaeological excavations in Japan are carried out prior to the development of infrastructure. In other words, these archaeological sites are destroyed after the excavations, and site reports are published later. A large-scale excavation conducted prior to, for example, construction of an expressway, can last six months and result in the discovery of more than five tons of pottery sherds. Such a large-scale excavation requires more than two years of laboratory work prior to the publication of a site report. The cost for the excavation, laboratory work, and publication can be more than 600,000,000 Japanese yen or five million US dollars. All the prefectural governments, numerous municipal and township governments, independent units devoted for excavations and laboratory works established by local governments, as well as private excavation companies are responsible for these excavations. Which organization conducts an excavation depends on the scale of an excavation, the ownership of a land to be excavated, and other local conditions, such as a municipal or township government lacking professional staff of archaeological heritage management.
Bio: Dr. Ken'ichi Sasaki is a professor of archaeology in the School of Arts and Letters at Meiji University.
(Watch it on YouTube) June 15: Hanna Szczepanowska (West Virginia University)
The chemical analysis of Southeast Asian lacquers collected from forests and workshops in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar
For centuries lacquer has been used for utilitarian, decorative, and ceremonial objects throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. In this presentation, the current harvesting methods and workshop uses of lacquer in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar are documented. This webinar presents observations from known forest and workshops, along with analytical characterization results of the lacquers using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS), and scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Lacquers from three different tree species were identified, characterized and composition was identified: laccol in Toxicodendron succedanea in Vietnam, thitsiol from Gluta usitata (Myanmar), and Gluta laccifera (Cambodia). Additionally, several organic and inorganic additives were characterized. The aim of this work was to contribute to the knowledge of regional differences in lacquer sourcing and working methods, in the Southeast Asia countries with long lacquer working traditions which remain relatively little known.
Bio: Dr. Hanna Szczepanowska is a material scientist specialized in analysis of cultural heritage material. Currently she is a professor at West Virginia University teaching a course in Technical Art History. She is also a Physical Scientist at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington DC. During her 4-year contract in Singapore she established at Singapore’s National Heritage Board a research laboratory and analytical research program for the collection of Southeast Asian artifacts. She had previously worked for 14 years at the Smithsonian Institution, and was also an adjunct professor at George Washington University, Washington DC. Hanna has a Masters degree in conservation from the University of Nicolaus Copernicus in Torun, Poland, and PhD from the University of Lyon, France, in material science. She authored a handbook, Conservation of Cultural Heritage: Key Principles and Approaches, Routledge 2012.
(Watch it on YouTube) June 22: Cesare Marino, Paul Michael Taylor, Robert Pontsioen (Smithsonian)
Red Cloud, Dog Child, and the "Long Knife" of the Samurai in Indian Country
This seminar revisits and reassess-es two enigmatic archival photographs taken in the 1890s showing Japanese katana, or samurai swords, in situ with American Indians in the northern Great Plains. Both have been published, correctly presented as enticing un- explained oddities in nineteenth-century Indian possession. The katana seen hanging on a wall of the home of Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota (Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota), which we believe was photographed in Novem- ber or early January of 1890, was first discussed in print by Bleed (1987). The second photograph shows a katana held by Dog Child of the Blackfoot (Siksika) tribe, formerly a scout for the North-West Mounted Police (later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), photographed in c. 1890–1894 at Gleichen, Alberta, and first discussed by Drew (1980). We attempt here to provide context and likely explanations for the presence of samurai swords in these two only known nineteenth-century in situ American Indian contexts.
Bio: Dr. Cesare Marino holds a Ph.D. in anthropology and worked as a researcher, staff writer, and bibliographer at the Handbook of North American Indians, Smithsonian Institution. He is now a senior associate at the Asian Cultural History Program, where he focuses on early American Indian and Japanese encounters. He has lectured extensively on American Indian, history, culture, and museum / archival collections. His latest book is titled: The Face of Crazy Horse: The Case for a Tintype Photograph of the Great Lakota Patriot (2018, with P. Abiuso and Francis White Lance). In 2014, he was a visiting lecturer at the Institute for American Studies, Rikkyo University, Tokyo. He is also a life-long student of traditional Shotokan karate-dō.
Bio: Dr. Paul Michael Taylor, a research anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, is director of that museum’s Asian Cultural History Program, and serves as Curator of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern Ethnology. He is the author of numerous books, scholarly articles, and online works about the ethnobiology, ethnography, art and material culture of Asia, and about the history of museums and anthropology. He is the curator of twenty-one museum exhibitions (including five online virtual exhibitions) and anthropologist consultant for ethnographic films. A broad selection of his publications can be found at: https://si.academia.edu/PaulMichaelTaylor.
(Watch it on YouTube) June 29: Toru Yamada (Meiji University)
Representing Hidden History: Japan’s Christian History in UNESCO’s World Heritage Program
Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region was the name of the World Heritage which UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee inscribed in the summer of 2018. However, as the hidden Christians kept their religious practices hidden from the public – and some of them still do so, there are no elaborate churches or religious pilgrimage sites which are usually associated with other World Heritage sites. Instead, the Japanese government registered regional landscapes which could represent the narratives of Japan’s hidden Christians. This World Heritage consists of geographic spaces which cannot be contained within a limited museum space. Neither are they static as local residents can modify the landscapes. While local museums can be in the heritage landscape, they can paradoxically be positioned out of the heritage narrative as smaller objects or artifacts are often not part of World Heritage. By focusing on the legal disjuncture between landscape and museum, in this talk, I explore the relationships among artifacts, heritage landscape, and international law in heritage preservation.
Bio: Dr. Toru Yamada is an associate professor of the School of Arts and Letters at Meiji University.
(Watch it on YouTube) December 14: Robert Pontsioen (Smithsonian)
Three Smithsonian Collections from Japan (1859, 1923, 1965): Shifting Rationales for Collecting at America’s National Museum
In this seminar, Dr. Robert Pontsioen explores three Japanese collections held in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History: 1) the objects acquired during the first US diplomatic voyages to Japan led by Commodore Matthew Perry (accessioned in 1859); 2) an estate collection primarily comprised of weapons, costumes, decorative arts, and ethnological specimens bequeathed in 1923; and 3) a group of ethnological items purchased in 1965 from Yoshio Noma, a folklorist from Kyushu, Japan. The nature of these objects, and the way in which they were collected, highlight how the methods, perceived purpose, and philosophical underpinnings of collecting for a natural history museum changed during this time period.
Bio: Dr. Robert Pontsioen is a Senior Researcher in the Smithsonian’s Asian Cultural History Program. A Japan Foundation Fellowship recipient in 2016-2017, his research involves extensive fieldwork among communities of traditional artisans in Tokyo.
January 11, 2022: Kenji Yamauchi (Meiji University) and Ryoji Yaginuma (Japan International Cooperation System)
Meiji University’s Alaska Expedition in the 1960s
Late Japanese anthropologist, Masao Oka (1898-1982) studied in the University of Vienna before WWII (His doctoral dissertation title was Kulturschichten in Alt-Japan: Cultural layers of old Japan). He was one of the first Japanese anthropologists who introduced the ethnological techniques of the Vienna School and American anthropology to the Japan. After the end of the WWII, Oka devoted himself to the advancement of anthropological research and academic exchange not only by directing several academic and research institutions in Japan, but also by serving as the president of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES). In this talk, we will explore 1) the footsteps and achievements of Oka on Japanese anthropology, and 2) the Meiji University's Alaska field project which he organized in the 1960s.
Bio: Dr. Kenji Yamauchi is a professor of the School of Political Science and Economics at Meiji University and Ryoji Yaginuma is a staff member of Japan International Cooperation System.
(Watch it on YouTube) June 21: Ken'ichi Sasaki (Meiji University)
Meiji University Expedition to Alaska in 1960s
In 1960, Meiji University organized a large-scale research expedition to Alaska as part of the school’s 80th year anniversary project. A group of archaeologists were in the initial expedition. They conducted archaeological research in Alaska in collaboration with scholars and institutions in the United States. In this presentation, Sasaki will present vivid details of the Japan-US archaeological collaboration behind the expedition.
Bio: Dr. Ken'ichi Sasaki is a professor of archaeology in the School of Arts and Letters at Meiji University.