The Theory and Practice Behind Japan’s “Universal Museum”

Author: HIROSE Kojiro, National Museum of Ethnology

Universal Museum is a word coined in Japan to express the idea of “a museum that anyone can enjoy”. In 2001, I started my career at Japan’s National Museum of Ethnology, where I have spent the past 20 years working on practical research regarding universal museums. In this article, I would like to explore the specific requirements for creating a museum “that anyone can enjoy” by examining four exhibits that I, a visually impaired person who is completely blind, have been in charge of.

The first special exhibit I organized was entitled “Tactile Letters, Tactile World — A Universal Museum Crafted by Tactile Culture” (2006). This exhibit presented a collection of 19th-century educational materials for the visually impaired that had been in the possession of schools for the blind in Kyoto and Tokyo. In preparing for this exhibit, I had the following two goals in mind. (1) Create an exhibit that can be easily visited by visually impaired people who have never (or rarely) had the opportunity to visit a museum. (2) Enable exhibit visitors to actually touch the materials used in the early education (special education) of the blind that are almost unknown to general visitors to allow them to directly experience the hardships and ingenuity of our predecessors.

“Tactile Letters, Tactile World”© Japan’s National Museum of Ethnology

At this special exhibit, visitors were introduced to embossed letters that had been created using various materials and methods, such as wood-carved letters, tile letters, and wax letters, which had been in use before Louis Braille's 6-dot Braille was introduced to Japan. However, because exhibiting only materials related to letters would have been overly specialized, this exhibit also displayed many three-dimensional works that visitors could appreciate by touching, such as models of Shinto shrines, Buddhist statues, and bird carvings.

Over the course of planning the exhibit, my concept changed little by little. As I mentioned, I first had a strong desire to create a rich exhibit capable of enlightening people with disabilities. Museums are by nature cultural facilities that symbolize the modern age from a sighted person’s point of view. Regardless of the time period or country, museums have always been regarded as places where people come to “view” objects. I felt that enabling visually impaired visitors who cannot or have difficulty seeing to visit such museums could possibly change the conventional idea of what an exhibit is. This is my motto for museum-related activities.

So, what significance does the “Tactile Letters, Tactile World” exhibit have for sighted museum visitors? Modern people live lives that are both visually dependent and visually overemphasized. In such a world, we tend to forget the role of senses other than sight, particularly the sense of touch. In such a world, we tend to forget the role of senses other than sight, particularly the sense of touch. Unlike other senses, the most distinctive feature of the sense of touch is that it takes place throughout the entire body. For example, people who have a hand-related impairment can still feel people and objects with other parts of their body. Being aware of their sense of touch leads to the restoration of their physicality. Because living can be defined as being in contact with the air and the world, the sense of touch can be said to be a universal sense for humans.

Immediately after the special exhibit opened, I began stating my desire for people without disabilities to actively touch the exhibits. Although I started by wanting to provide enjoyment for the visually impaired, my ideas evolved and deepened in the direction of utilizing senses other than sight and questioning our vision-centered modern society. By focusing on the culture and history of minority groups, we can regain a “diversity of senses” that has been forgotten and overlooked by the majority. The response I received from this exhibit undoubtedly became the driving force behind my subsequent research.

“The Universe of Braille”© Japan’s National Museum of Ethnology

The next exhibit I led was the “200th Anniversary of the Birth of Louis Braille, the Creator of Braille: The Universe of Braille” (2009). This exhibit, which looked back over the history of Braille throughout its creation and development, presented a collection of materials related to the Braille Mainichi (a weekly Braille newspaper that has continued publication since the 1920s) and the Japan Light House (a general welfare facility for the visually impaired). As a Braille user myself, I have a great appreciation for Braille. It is certainly thanks to Braille that I was able to attend university and continue my work at the museum. Having such a personal passion for Braille, my goal was to emphasize the significance of Braille for the able-bodied when planning this exhibit. Because I believe the 200th anniversary of Braille should not simply be a commemorative event for the visually impaired, I decided to use this exhibit as an opportunity to share the idea of Braille with the able-bodied.

For this exhibit, I used the keyword “Braille ability”. This word includes two nuances, one being “a strong creativity that enables one to make more from less” and “a flexibility to think outside the box”. Braille is able to express various letters and symbols by combining only six dots. Also, the historical significance of Braille's invention of Braille is that he proposed “another way of life” that expresses letters using dots, overcoming the stereotype that letters are represented by lines. Expanding upon and applying the concept of “Braille ability”, this exhibit included a category entitled “Braille art” which introduced works such as tsugite (works created using wood joinery) and stone paintings (painting reliefs) that can be touched.

Through this exhibit, I emphasized that Braille is not just a script for the visually impaired, but also a symbol of tactile culture. Culture is said to be the totality of things that humans have created, used, and passed down. In many cases, this creation, use, and passing down is performed via people’s hands. This makes the touching of objects in a museum likened to an act of reliving the creation, use, and passing down of such objects. Tactile culture is open to everyone, regardless of their ability to see or not. The visually impaired are skilled at acquiring and using tactile information instead of using their sight. Normal people rely on sight, while the visually impaired rely on touch. For this reason, I believe it is up to museums to promote intercultural communication between the two. As a visually impaired person, the success of this Braille exhibit enlightened me to the fact that the museum I work at is, in a sense, an edifice dedicated to the sense of sight.

“Connect×Cover×Catch”© Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art

Upon completion of the Braille exhibit, I set up the “Universal Museum Study Group” together with a group of volunteers, and began holding lectures and workshops at museums across Japan. Currently, more than 120 people have registered for the mailing list of this study group, including curators, university teachers, and artists. Since 2010, the activities of this study group have triggered an increased number of requests for exhibit supervision and advice from museums around the world. Of the special exhibits I have taken part in at other museums, one that left an impression on me was the “Connect×Cover×Catch - Essence of Appreciation Without Sight” (2016) held at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. This exhibit was planned with a main theme that attempted to answer the fundamental question, “What effects does touch have on the able-bodied?”

The methods by which the able-bodied and the visually impaired touch things are different. I distinguish between these two methods of touching by using the terms “confirmation touching” and “search touching”. The able-bodied are able to conveniently acquire information via sight, after which they touch an object to perform confirmation. This inevitably results in their sense of sight playing the primary role and their sense of touch playing an auxiliary role. Conversely, because visually impaired people have no visual image of an object, they take information acquired through touch from points and expand it into lines and surfaces. This process of actively using the hands and head to create an overall image can be called “search touching”. Sight, which enables more information to be captured more quickly, matches with the trends of modernization, and has come to be valued in all aspects of life. In modern society, “visualization” is synonymous with “making the invisible visible” and has come to be praised as progress.

On the other hand, “search touching” provides less information, and the transmission speed is slower than that of sight. However, as people around the world recognize the contradictory and stifling nature of modernization, perhaps this idea of “less and slower” is more necessary now than ever. The “Connect×Cover×Catch” exhibit was unique in that it allowed able-bodied people to experience “search touching”. At the venue entrance, visitors are given a blindfold and requested to enter the exhibit blindfolded. The visitors then proceed through the exhibit by relying on ropes that have been stretched along the walls of the venue. A bronze sculpture is located at the end of the rope, which visitors then take time touching. Three works are on display at the exhibit, which change from concrete to abstract.

Audio guidance is also provided for each work. This guidance is a live broadcast in which I explain which points the visitors are to focus on while touching the works. Normally. audio guidance is created on the premise that there is a work in front of you. However, because the audio guidance at this exhibit is premised on the fact that visitors cannot see the works, I tried to provide explanations that focus on tactile information. The three verbs “Connect”, “Cover”, and “Catch” can be used as clues and guides for each visitor in asking themselves “Why do I touch things? ” and “How do I touch things? ”

At this exhibit, I was adamant about not allowing visitors to view the works until the end. After touching the three works, the visitors then proceed to the exit and remove the blindfold once they have left the venue. The purpose of this exhibit is not to simulate the experience of art appreciation by the visually impaired. Until now, art appreciation has been centered on people’s sense of sight. However, at this exhibit, we proposed a new way of approaching works of art which we called “non-visual appreciation”, and which refrains from using the sense of sight.

That I was able to clearly recognize the true meaning of “universal” that I am aiming for through this exhibit is something I consider to be a major achievement. Examining how and to what extent minorities can be included in the values and world views that the majority has come to hold is referred to as “inclusiveness”. Similarly, the term “accessibility” suggests concrete measures for preventing minorities from being excluded or alienated from existing values and world views. On the other hand, the term “universal” refers to modifying the values and world views of the majority in order to build a new universality. I can say that the “Connect×Cover×Catch” exhibit was an undeniably ambitious challenge aimed at achieving “universality”.

“Universal Museum”© Japan’s National Museum of Ethnology

The culmination of my 20 years of research is the special exhibit “Universal Museum – Exploring the New Field of Tactile Sensation”(2021). This exhibit featured 280 works created by over 60 presenters with the assumption that these works would be touched by countless numbers of visitors. This exhibit was also held during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which called for avoiding contact in all aspects of life. The slogan of this exhibit was “Inspiration is not born from a society without contact”. Humans have cultivated their culture by communicating with each other through contact and the COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity to reaffirm the true meaning of human touch.

With this conviction in mind, I enthusiastically ran through the three months of the exhibit with the assistance of people from both inside and outside the museum.

Although there were many negative aspects, such as the cancellation or postponement of related events, the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly highlighted the significance of this exhibit. By thoroughly implementing infection control measures such as disinfection, ventilation, and the wearing of masks, large-scale “tactile exhibits” can be held safely. That we were able to prove this fact is something that I believe makes this exhibit historic.

Because the works presented at this exhibit were aggressively touched by visitors, the works became dirty or damaged in many instances. This makes it essential to establish “tactile manners” if works and materials are to be preserved over the course of such “tactile exhibits”. Behind each exhibited work are the people who created it, used it, and passed it on. Indeed, things are connected to people. By imagining these invisible “people”, we can touch things gently and carefully. An issue for the future is how to popularize “tactile manners” for forging such imagination.

In Japan’s pre-modern society, blind religious figures and entertainers such as Japanese lute players (biwa hoshi), blind female traveling musicians (goze), and blind female shamans (itako) were active. Using their senses of hearing and touch as weapons, they created their own culture, which they handed down from hand to hand and mouth to ear. Typical examples of blind culture in Japan include manual therapy techniques such as acupuncture, moxibustion, and massage, as well as Japanese lute musicians who play the “Tale of the Heike”. My idea of a universal exhibit based on tactile sensations in this 21st-century Japan may actually be a modern form of the pre-modern blind culture. Organizations of biwa hoshi, goze, and itako have been maintained through a system of master-apprentice succession only among the visually impaired. In modern Japan, in which the visually impaired can avail a diverse array of career paths, there are no people willing to carry on blind culture.

Instead of focusing on blind culture, I am searching for ways to realize a universal museum by advocating tactile culture. A universal museum that originated in Japan may be able to present the possibilities of coexistence in a manner distinct from the “social inclusion” of the West. As the biwa hoshi and goze once fascinated the able-bodied with their sounds and voices, and just as the itako served as mediators between the invisible spirit world and the real world, I am convinced that the universal museum contains the power to overcome the modern dichotomous view of “able-bodied/disabled” held by human beings.

21st-century museums are making efforts to accept visitors with various disabilities. In the future, it is essential for museums to recognize the existence of people with disabilities by having them serve as coworkers, as well as in management and planning roles. My hope is that museums will mature into places where people with disabilities can work while having a sense of purpose and fulfillment. I myself would like to continue holding experimental exhibits related to tactile culture based on my stance of providing something “from the blind”. The success of this universal museum will hinge on the degree to which we can increase the number of like-minded able-bodied persons, or “sighted visually impaired people”, who are capable of sharing in a sense of ownership. The role of museums in serving as a chain of inspiration has just begun. Let’s hope that, in the near future, Japan's tactile culture will stimulate the creation of various universal museums around the world, including versions for the deaf and mentally disabled.

The English version is translated from the Japanese original.

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© Wang Mengfan

Im Rahmen des Projekts „Teehaus 798“ des Goethe-Instituts organisieren das Beijing Shengbo Disability Social Services Centre und Wang Mengfan am 27. Mai 2023 gemeinsam den Workshop „Körper ohne Sehen“ im Goethe-Institut in „798“. Ziel des Workshops ist es, das Konzept der „nichtvisuellen Wahrnehmung“ zu hinterfragen und zu reflektieren, wie unser Körper in der Umgebung existiert, in der er lebt. Am Workshop nehmen sowohl Sehbehinderte wie Nicht-Sehbehinderte teil.

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