You will look back at the global and Japanese situations of the 1960s through photos, newspaper report panels, and audio data of the mass media, to reflect upon the social backdrop of the time when the Expo ’70 Ethnological Mission was active.

The materials selected by OKAMOTO Taro among those collected by the Expo ’70 Ethnological Mission that were exhibited inside the Tower of the Sun are introduced. You can enjoy the exhibition organized from approximately 2,500 items collected in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, India, Middle and Near East, West Africa, East Africa, Europe, South America, North America, and Oceania, by the up-and-coming researchers of the National Museum of Ethnology. Researchers specialized in each region under three themes: (1) situations of the time in the collection areas, (2) actual collecting activities, and (3) anthropological challenges and cultural issues which concerned the people in the collection areas at the time.

Masks and sculptures representing the core concept of the inner Tower of the Sun: “Heart” (composed of “Wisdom,” “Prayers,” and “Meeting”), where the materials collected by the Expo ’70 Ethnological Mission were intensively exhibited, will be collectively displayed.

This is a workshop section involving visitors. Showing reproduced the Subterranean Sun, the “mask exhibition” for the 21st century will be displayed, by installing masks created on site by visitors on the wall. Each mask will have a function- to record the memories of Expo ’70 and convey 21st century messages, by producing a workshop space that leads to the future.