When I started school at Kansai Gaidai, everyone received a booklet which allows free admission to many museums in the Osaka area. With one of the selected prompts being a trip to a museum, I thought this is the perfect chance to try it out. I chose to go to the Osaka history museum.
The museum was divided into four levels of exhibits. The first level focuses a lot about artifacts from around the Jomon period through the Yayoi period. This includes tools, dioramas of settlement layouts, and religious practices. The theming gave off a very mysterious vibe. There was mostly dark lighting with music played with very “traditional” sounding instruments of flutes and strings.
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| One of the displays in the first exhibit. |
The second exhibit took place in the Edo period and explained daily life and major event during this time. This part felt most like a story where a Bunraku puppet, named Naniwaya, explained every part of the exhibit in an upbeat tone. The last exhibit was about the “Great Osaka Era.” This part is advertised as a look at modern and contemporary Osaka. This floor has large replicas of trains and markets from an early 1900 time frame.
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| The large set for "The Age of Greater Osaka" |
I felt like the story that was being told in this museum is a very positive one. First off, the names for exhibits are grand titles like “The Age of Great Distribution” or “The Age of Greater Osaka”. This also shows in the presentation. Every picture, statue, and cut out has a smile on their face. I had a hard time finding a part of the museum that talked about any negative events or tragedy. This seemed to paint a very nice picture of Osaka, but does not seem to tell both sides of the story. There are also big gaps in eras covered. The museum went from their “ancient” exhibit, to the Edo period, and then to the 1900’s. It feels like there were a lot of events not covered and the museum was very selective in what they presented. Despite my criticisms, I understand that a lot of the presentation is for kids, and it was nice to see the kids engaged in the colorful and extravagant sets they had. And in the end, I am glad that the kids were excited to learn about history.
3 comments:
The Osaka history museum seems very similar to the Edo-Tokyo museum with its big models and sets. Were there any big displays with actual historical objects? The Edo-Tokyo museum also relies on recreations rather than the preservation of historical objects, and I wonder if it is the same across museums.
They had real artifacts, but they were never part of the main exhibit and were always pushed to the sides. Every main focus was a modern recreation and really focused on the "wow" factor.
I think this is somewhat common from what I have seen. Even in Oga with the Namahage, I feel that they focus on trying to grab the attention of the visitor rather than thoroughly educate them. I think it helps to spark an interest in people and hopefully they will learn more about the topic on their own afterwards.
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