A photographic introduction to items from the collection

Process and Significance of the Collection of "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa"

1. Outline of Materials

The National Museum of Japanese History has an enormous collection of a total of 3,034 subjects and 4,135 items called the "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa." This collection includes a number of large materials such as drawers, household appliances, etc. and occupies most of the first basement of the five-story warehouse labeled "Rekihaku."

It is said that the materials were collected in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture and the surrounding area as the collection’s name suggests. However, the collection also includes many items with unknown histories such as billboards from Tochigi and Kyoto, etc. The collection consists mostly of the materials from the Meiji period to Showa 30s and includes also a small amount of early-modern materials.

The collection includes a wide range of materials: papers such as 275 school textbooks, 112 Hosho school books and song sheets, 923 tokens, 224 postcards and letters, etc., and objects such as 106 food utensils, 119 sake bottles, 168 cooking utensils, 131 pieces of furniture, 107 lighting devices, 182 military items, 133 coins, etc. Roughly speaking, the collection consists of general items for daily life while including also less commonly available farming utensils, fishing gear, tools used by craftsmen and merchants with traces of use, which enhances the research value of the collection.

On the other hand, the collection also includes military uniforms and sabers, elementary schools desks, souvenirs sold in folkcraft shops, one-of-a-kind documents, etc. which are irrelevant to daily life, and gives the impression of the lack of consistency in its direction. This situation might have resulted from the random collection of old things. In contrast to a general collection in which the purpose and the preference of the collector are shown, uncertainty is one of the main characteristics of the "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa."

Materials on modern life in Kanazawa in the warehouse Materials stored on the shelves

Photo 1: Materials on modern life in Kanazawa in the warehouse (Two-layer room on the second floor)

Photo 2: Materials stored on the shelves

2. Process of Collection

The "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa" are the materials purchased collectively by the National Museum of Japanese History in 1987 from the Kaga Folk Museum which then existed in Teramachi, Kanazawa City. The Kaga Folk Museum was a privately-managed museum with a number of materials arranged in no particular order throughout the three-story building. Due to financial difficulties, it began looking for a purchaser of the materials not long after its opening.

The museum's manager was then in his mid-80s running a fish shop in a supermarket near his museum. He does not seem to have belonged to any local academic organization. It is said that he collected the materials as a collector rather than a local historian. Although it is not known how he could have collected the more than 4,000 items by himself, the following reason is surmised. At that time, Japan was on the brink of the bubble economy. In Kanazawa City, old houses were demolished for development, and their household items were sold on the market through antique dealers. Therefore, if you had the money, you could collect a large amount of materials in a short period of time. It is also said that redundant living items were sometimes brought to the museum from the neighborhood.

Such a situation in which old household items were obtained easily from various routes corresponds to the impression that the antiquated materials were collected randomly for the "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa."However, although the purpose and the intention are unknown, he would not have been able to collect all those materials by himself unless he had a lot of enthusiasm, and he must have been further determined when giving up those materials.

Home electric appliances which are rarely collected Magic lanterns that scarcely remain today

Photo 3: Home electric appliances which are rarely collected (All three items are radio receivers.)

Photo 4: Magic lanterns that scarcely remain today

Meanwhile, the National Museum of Japanese History organized the exhibition project committee for the opening of Gallery 5 in the same year of 1987 while searching for materials on modern life. Then, in the collaborative research project "Modern and Contemporary Urban Life," one of the collaborative researchers informed a member of the Museum that the Kaga Folk Museum was looking for a purchaser of its materials. Therefore, after having the actual materials evaluated by internal and external specialists on living items and production tools, the Museum decided to purchase them.

When the materials were carried in the Museum, the manager of the Kaga Folk Museum was there, shedding tears of shame because he had no choice but to sell the materials to which he had an emotional attachment, or tears of relief because he could hand down his materials collectively. He died several years later, and it is no longer possible to ask him how he felt at that time.

Part of many military-related materials Templates of wooden clogs: The materials on modern life in Kanazawa also feature many tools used by craftsmen and merchants.

Photo 5: Part of many military-related materials

Photo 6: Templates of wooden clogs: The materials on modern life in Kanazawa also feature many tools used by craftsmen and merchants.

3. After Collection

The "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa" are a group of exhaustive materials related to modern life and businesses. Therefore, after becoming a collection of the National Museum of Japanese History, they soon became popular materials used by many researchers. Perhaps because the former collector of the materials did not have technical knowledge of their preservation, the materials were not cleaned and restored, which helped preserve the traces of use as living items. Those traces of use have a research value in positioning the materials in the history of life in Kanazawa. On the other hand, the materials were difficult to deal with because they lack background data to clarify the regions and the times of the production and the use, the purpose and the process of the collection, etc. of the materials.

However, simply because they were collected exhaustively, the "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa" became valuable as a result. In the modern and contemporary periods, which are the eras of mass production and mass consumption, an enormous amount of products and information are produced one after another and disposed of quickly. Therefore, when collecting modern and contemporary materials, things that had existed in our life until quite recently have often disappeared completely before we know it. The "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa" include many of such materials which would have disappeared before we knew it.

Needless to say, the method of collecting materials exhaustively is not recommendable because it has various problems such as costs, storage spaces, inefficiency, limitations in research activities, etc. However, we should devise a way to make the most of the materials that have remained as a result.

Sawing tools wired for display at the Kaga Folk Museum Large pothook attached with a caption at the Kaga Folk Museum

Photo 7: Sawing tools wired for display at the Kaga Folk Museum

Photo 8: Large pothook attached with a caption at the Kaga Folk Museum

Label attached at the Kaga Folk Museum  

Photo 9: Label attached at the Kaga Folk Museum (Beer bottle)

 

Therefore, we started the "Research of Materials on Modern and Contemporary Life and Industrial Change" in 2010 as a joint research of the National Institutes for the Humanities, which is the umbrella organization of the Museum, to study the use and the preservation method of the materials. Specifically, we are clarifying the characteristics of the "Materials on Modern Life in Kanazawa" with unknown histories in light of the life, the production and the distribution in Kanazawa City and examining how to preserve and restore those materials while preserving the traces of display at the Kaga Folk Museum. Ultimately, we would like those attempts to help in the future as precedents for continuing the collection and the preservation of modern and contemporary materials which are increasingly demanded by researchers.

Aoki Takahiro (Folklore Studies/Geography, Research Department)