Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum Vol. 3: Learning Opportunities Created by Digital Content

2021/04/19

There is a common phrase, "Fukuzawa Mountain Range." Derived from Naoki Kojima's novel of the same name, this term is often used to refer to the students of Fukuzawa who were widely active, primarily in the business world. Their existence occupies an important position in the history of Keio University, but even so, it is difficult to extract and incorporate the vast number of Keio University affiliates into an exhibition. Therefore, a dedicated application was developed to introduce these people at a glance. The resulting digital content is "Keio Gijuku Shachu Who’s Who," and its particularly large screen is sure to catch the eyes of visitors as one of the museum's highlights.

As mentioned in the previous issue, the exhibition structure follows a relatively orthodox style, but at the same time, great effort was put into enriching the digital content. In addition to the aforementioned "Keio Gijuku Shachu Who’s Who," a total of four digital contents are available, including the specially developed apps "Yukichi Fukuzawa Gallops Across the World," "Yukichi Fukuzawa: Fighting with Words," and "Keio students in Modern and Contemporary History." These contents allow visitors to visually look back on the journey of Yukichi Fukuzawa and Keio University through many photographs and illustrations. Since there is not enough space to introduce all of them here, I would like to delve into the functions of "Keio Gijuku Shachu Who’s Who" and the "Database of Keio University War Dead" included in "Keio students in Modern and Contemporary History," leaving the rest for you to enjoy after the museum opens.

"Keio Gijuku Shachu Who’s Who" is a biographical database that introduces Keio University affiliates, centered on Keio University alumni up to the present day, as well as relatives, friends, and acquaintances of Yukichi Fukuzawa, without being limited to the aforementioned Fukuzawa Mountain Range (only deceased individuals are included). Portrait icons of individuals float randomly on two touch-panel screens; touching an icon opens a detailed screen where you can learn about that person. The system is designed so that people who share certain attributes gather around the selected individual. In addition to touching portrait icons, you can also search for people based on attributes. Touching the whistle icon on the screen opens a search screen with tabs for "Name," "Place of Birth," "Occupation," "Academic Field," "Field/Other," and "Period of Enrollment." By entering a name in each tab or pressing buttons for pre-set items, people with specific attributes will gather.

Let's experience this through a specific procedure. For example, the "Occupation" tab has various buttons such as "Business," "Journalism," "Entertainment," "Politics," and "Religion." Among these, let's try pressing the "Sports" button (it is included in "Occupation" for convenience, but it refers to the sports world).

Then, portrait icons of figures who colored not only the Keio University Athletic Association but also Japanese sports history will gather: Kazuya Kumagai, Japan's first Olympic medalist tennis player; Yoshiaki Yamashita, the first Judo Club instructor hailed as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Kodokan; star players of the Big Six Baseball League like Saburo Miyatake; Yuko Maki, a world-famous mountaineer known for the first ascent of the Eiger's Mittellegi Ridge in the Alps; Sueo Oe, a pole vaulter known for the "Medal of Friendship" at the Berlin Olympics; Yasutaka Matsudaira, the head coach of the Japan men's national volleyball team that won the gold medal at the Munich Olympics; and Akio Ueda, the coach who led the Rugby Football Club to become the best in Japan. Touching an icon there allows you to check the details.

In addition to this, various items are prepared for the buttons in each tab. For example, as a unique entry, the "Field/Other" tab has a button for "Father/King/God of XX." This button brings together people with various nicknames such as the "Father of Citizen Sports," the "Paper King," the "Father of Shingeki (New Drama)," the "God of Constitutional Government," and the "Demon of Electric Power." Although it is named "Shachu," it is by no means limited to Keio University's internal stories; it includes pioneers who opened up their respective fields.

The fact that the portrait icons "speak" in the form of speech bubbles is also a device to create a sense of familiarity. These are roughly divided into two types: common ones like "Hello" and specific lines unique to each person. For example, for Yukichi Fukuzawa, it might be "The class system is my father's enemy," and for Shinzo Koizumi, "Practice makes the impossible possible." They are designed to mutter a single word about the person's quotes, related events, or trivia. Some people have multiple lines set, and many are somewhat more casual compared to the biographical introduction. It would be interesting to touch a portrait icon out of interest in these lines and enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.

So far, "Keio Gijuku Shachu Who’s Who" includes about 300 people, mainly from "An Encyclopedia of Yukichi Fukuzawa" and the "Encyclopedia of Keio University History," and we plan to add more from time to time. In addition to people, a video playback function is also installed, and by touching a video icon, it is possible to watch footage such as the "90th Anniversary Festival."

The "Database of Keio University War Dead" is also content for which a unique app was developed and a great deal of effort was invested. Regarding the war dead related to Keio University, there is the "List of Keio University War Dead in the Asia-Pacific War" edited by Atsushi Shirai, and the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies is continuing revision work to carry this forward. Furthermore, the center launched the "Keio University and War" Archive Project in 2013 and has continued research into the war period; this database reflects the latest data from those efforts.

Search items include "Surname," "Date of Death," "Place of Death/Other," "Army/Navy/Civilian Employee," "Affiliation," "Year of Graduation, etc.," and "Club," allowing users to search according to their interests. In particular, the "Place of Death/Other" item is detailed, with four tabs: "Place of Death," "Classification by Affiliation/Topic," "Classification by Combat 1," and "Classification by Combat 2." The "Classification by Affiliation/Topic" includes buttons such as "Navy Reserve Students (Line Branch)," "Army Special Pilot Trainee Officers," "War Dead Olympians," "Military Doctors," "Military Nurses," and "Deaths due to Siberian Internment." For instance, if you press the "War Dead from Aerial Special Attacks" button, the names and dates of death of 32 people will be displayed. Additionally, the classification by combat includes 35 buttons such as the "Nomonhan Incident," "Battle of Guadalcanal," "Imphal Campaign," "Battle of Leyte Gulf," "Battle of Iwo Jima," and "Battle of Okinawa." Touching them displays a list of Keio University affiliates who died in those battles.

The reason we provided such seemingly excessively detailed buttons is that we believe records of the war dead linked to events users have heard or seen in classes, textbooks, or news will add depth to existing knowledge and provide an opportunity to think about war. The inclusion of various information such as clubs is for the same reason; we hope that some kind of connection between the user and the war dead will trigger a broadening of interest.

Now, I have introduced two digital contents. The ideal of the Keio History Museum is to be a place of awareness and learning for all visitors, regardless of whether they are Keio University affiliates. The two contents introduced this time are thought to have a high affinity with this goal. Users will likely find it relatively easy to take an interest in people who share the same birthplace or occupation, and war dead from the same club will not feel like someone else's business. Digital content, which can incorporate vast amounts of information, enables an approach that is close to tailor-made for more people. We aim to update and enrich the information with these points in mind.

That said, I would like users to first try out the digital content in various ways without being too formal. Beyond that, I hope they can gain new insights and memorable experiences.

Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum Website

Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum – A history museum for thinking about modern civilization through the life of Yukichi Fukuzawa and the 160-year history of Keio University