Preface

The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) has been organizing a two-week International Cooperation Seminar on Museology every year since 1994. The seminar aims to promote understanding of our museum's activities, its concept and present situation, as well as to exchange views and experience in museology among participants. The seminar is closely related with a half-year training course on Museum Management Technology (Collection, Conservation, Exhibition) run by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Both trainees of the JICA course and foreign research visitors at Minpaku participate in the seminar.

Since 2000, we have been publishing a newsletter named "Co-operation" to share recent news and information from former participants and our colleagues. We consider this newsletter as a first step towards establishing a network for all seminar participants, and for anyone working at a museum or related institution and interested in museology. Our network is still small, but we hope that a number of cooperative projects will be proposed and carried out through the network.

Tsuneyuki Morita, who was a Leader of the International Cooperation Committee of Museology from the time of its foundation to 2001, left his position because he reached mandatory retirement age. We take this opportunity to express our warm appreciation for his contributions, which have greatly enriched the seminar. Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka assumes the position of Leader from 2002.

The opening essay of "Memory of a Museologist" by Tsuneyuki Morita is an English version of the speech, given in commemoration of his retirement on March 27, 2002. This issue also includes three other essays, "A study trip of the International Cooperation Seminar on Museology 2002" by Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka, "The start of the Nepal National Ethnographic Museum" by Makito Minami, and "Working in collaboration with the National Museum of Ethnology and PNG National Museum & Art gallery" by Michael Kisombo.

Finally, we would like to thank Mr. Youichi Banjo, Mr. Koji Nishiyama and Ms. Naoko Ohnaka of the International Cooperation section, Research Cooperation Division at Minpaku for their assistance and Ms. Tomoko Kamata for coordination.

March, 2003
Katsumi Tamura
Naoko Sonoda
Atsushi Nobayashi
Editorial Subcommittee members
International Cooperation Committee on Museology

Tsuneyuki Morita Professor emeritus, National Museum of Ethnology

(This is an English version of Professor Morita's speech entitled "Memory of Museologist", which was given in commemoration of his retirement on March 27, 2002. at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka.)

I first set my sights on finding a job with a museum in my second year of high school. I had stopped off as always at the bookstore on my way home to browse through the magazines when I noticed a short article in a magazine that talked about how to become a museum specialist. I knew at the time that the job of museum specialist in Japan was a specialized position for which one needed to obtain a qualification from the national government.

My interest in museums and art museums had been sparked during my second year of junior high school. The art teacher who had been assigned to my school that year occasionally took us along to museums on Saturday afternoons. By the time I became a high school student, I was often going to see exhibitions.

I enrolled in the Aesthetics and Art History Department at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, which proclaims that it offers an education that is both theoretical and practical. I thought that there was more to be gained from being around people who actually made things rather than to study art and art history in a literature department. After 45 years, I still think that choice was correct. Even so, I started to have some reservations after one or two years had passed. My class in art theory involved offering personal impressions and conjectures regarding a given creator's sensibilities, and I began to feel reluctance about doing this.