The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) is a research center for ethnology and cultural anthropology.

Seminars, Symposia, and Academic Conferences

Sunday, September 15, 2019
Re-examination and documentation of the Ainu collection at Minpaku (NME): Database and its active use

  • Date: September 15 (Sun); 10:30-16:20
  • Venue: National Museum of Ethnology, 4th seminar room
  • Russian-Japanese Simultaneous interpretation
  • E-mail: aynu_forum●minpaku.ac.jp
     (please replace ● with @)
 

 

National Museum of Ethnology (NME / Minpaku) owns over 5,000 items from the Ainu culture. As part of the four-year plan from FY2016 to FY2019, we have been preparing to enhance the information found in these materials and to provide a database that is easy to use for people interested in Ainu culture. This workshop aims to share issues through case reports and discussions regarding the status of organizing and publishing material information found in museums / institutions that have Ainu materials, whether in Japan or overseas. We will also explore ways to foster collaboration between museums and various institutions in the future and examine a prototype database of the Ainu collection in Minpaku.
At the same time, the workshop will assess the significance and possibility of studying old materials (the history of collections).

 

Program

September 15 (Sun)
10:00 Registration
10:30 - 10:35 Opening remarks:
Kenji YOSHIDA (National Museum of Ethnology, Director)
Chairperson:
Nobuhiro KISHIGAMI (National Institutes for the Humanities / National Museum of Ethnology)
10:35 - 11:00 Introduction to the workshop and the prototype database of the Ainu collection in Minpaku
Reiko SAITO (National Museum of Ethnology)
11:00 - 11:30 Special report "The collecting of Ainu materials nearly a century ago: Following the footsteps of Barathosi Balogh’s fieldwork in 1903 and 1914"
David SOMFAI (Institute of Ethnology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences / Visiting researcher of Minpaku)
11:30 - 12:00 comment / Q&A
<Lunch>
13:00 - 13:40 “The Ainu materials owned by the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Science (Kunstkamera)—Their conservation and publication in the history of collection”
Andrey SOKOLOV (The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Science: Kunstkamera)
13:40 - 14:10 “The Ainu collection of the Sakhalin Regional Museum”
Anna LEVKOVSKAYA (Sakhalin Regional Museum)
14:10 - 14:50 “Management system for collections at the National Ainu Museum”
Takanori NAKAI (Preparatory Office for National Ainu Museum)
<Coffee Break>
15:00 - 15:40 “Ainu materials and a database—from the front line of field studies”
Koji YAMASAKI (Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies, Hokkaido University)
15:40 - 16:20 Discussion: “How databases for Ainu materials should be”

Closing