"Past" and "Future" of "Ukiyo-e Museum" -Ask Kenji Hinohara, Chief Curator of Ota Memorial Museum (Part 2) Corona and Museum-Art Exhibition Navi

Towards the era of the 2nd "After Corona"

The Ota Memorial Museum in Harajuku, Tokyo is a private museum specializing in ukiyo-e. Perhaps the influence of the "Korona-ka" from last year was great only for private schools. How much was the influence of the Korona-ka? What does it bring to the operation of the museum and what kind of impact is it going to have in the future? Interview with Kenji Hinohara, Chief Curator The second theme is "Corona and the Museum". (Interviewer is Satoshi Tanaka, expert advisor of the Business Bureau)

――How much was the influence of Korona-ka?

Hinohara That's right. In 2018, the project was strong, and there were about 120,000 visitors a year. In the first year of Reiwa, the museum was closed for one month due to the state of emergency, so the number of visitors was about 80,000, but last year, which was fully affected by the year, it was just under 30,000. This year is a little better than that, but I think it will still be around 40,000 people a year.

――Is it one-third compared to the good season? That's pretty tough, isn't it?

Hinohara : The number of visitors to the museum has been increasing over the past few years, and it was particularly good in FY2018. Well, I don't think it's going to be so good every year, so I thought that the standard pace would be 80,000 to 100,000 people a year. It's a big blow because it decreased all at once. Especially when the museum was closed from April to May this year, there was no cooperation from the capital for public interest foundations like ours, and the views of the government and the capital changed as to whether or not the museum could be opened in the first place. It was very difficult to decide what to do because there was. It was a lot of work. ――However, at present (November 2021), it seems that the Korona-ka has settled down. Isn't it going to improve again in the future?

Hinohara I can't be optimistic about that. During the period of the state of emergency, all the Japanese people lived a life of "not going out unnecessarily and urgently" and "not getting crowded". I feel that that feeling remains even after the state of emergency has been declared. "If you go to a place where people gather, you may endanger your health." I feel that middle-aged and older people are less motivated to go to museums on their days off. The departure of foreign visitors, who accounted for 15% of the visitors, is uncertain, and it is difficult to make a forecast for the operation of the "After Corona" museum.

――Do you mean that the various events that happened in Korona-ka have changed the hearts of the visitors?

Hinohara The hardware side is also changing. With the introduction of electronic tickets, many museums have adopted an advance reservation system that specifies the date and time of admission. Responses will go smoothly at major museums and large-scale exhibitions, but what about small private museums like ours? There are some middle-aged and older customers who are reluctant to "digitize", and it is a pity that the convenience of casually entering is lost. We must continue to consider what to do in that area.

--So that's it. However, the change in the way museums are run is not the only downside. For example, SNS such as Twitter has become more active than before. Originally, the Ota Memorial Museum's Twitter operation had a good reputation, but it has become even more noticeable with the transmission of "# Ukiyo-e at home".

Hinohara : Well, it may be that "I couldn't think of it without Corona" rather than "I can't help it because of Corona." The fact is that we were forced to close the museum from March 2020, and we had to think about "what can be sent from the museum".

――Before that, you probably had a lot of experience working with various museums with the hashtag "# Curator's work". I heard that there are many paintings that have become a hot topic here, such as Kawanabe Kyosai's "Kyosai Gakudan Uchihen" "Hands and Foot Shinzu and Hi Gakuzu". It seems that the number of followers has also increased considerably.

Hinohara "# Ukiyo-e at home" started in March 2020. The number of followers, which used to be less than 120,000, has increased by about 40,000 over the past year and a half. Immediately before this, the number of followers on Twitter, which had been steadily increasing, seemed to have leveled off, but since I made this hashtag, it has increased again.

――From August 2020, you started sending information via the SNS service note. From January 2021, an "online exhibition" using the note system has also started.

Hinohara note has a corporate plan, and it was said that it could be provided free of charge to cultural facilities such as libraries and museums, so I started it. In the era when various SNSs were developed, I wanted a place to send information other than Twitter, and I was also looking for a place to write columnar things. Note, which allows you to read long sentences carefully, is a good platform. The "online exhibition" started as an extension of that.

--Did you have any idea about "online exhibition" such as 3D or video distribution?

Hinohara 3D requires manpower and is technically difficult. Rather than spending so much money and effort, I thought that it would be easier for customers to use it if they included detailed explanations in a note. …… Actually, I had been thinking about it for a while. Since we are a small museum, when the number of visitors exceeds 100,000 a year, it is becoming crowded and we cannot see it slowly. I thought that I had to create an environment where I could see the exhibition remotely. Holding an "online exhibition" also creates an archive on the web, so I think it's worth keeping such things in the future. However, there is a limit to the number of people in the museum, so I don't know if the note and the "online exhibition" would have taken the time to put into practice without the Korona-ka.

--In both Twitter and note, Korona-ka played a role in promoting utilization. In a sense, it's ironic, but I feel the passage of time. How about video distribution?

Hinohara : Considering the transmission to overseas, I think we have to think about video distribution from now on, but we are still in the process of exploring what method to take. The average number of "attendees" per exhibition in an "online exhibition" is about 100, so it cannot be said that it is still on track. However, in the "after corona" era, we must consider expanding the scope of our business as a museum in addition to admission fees and goods income, so we will continue to make various trials and errors regarding digital content. I think there will be. (Continued from the 3rd)