On the Grand Opening of the Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum and the Keio Museum Commons

2021/05/12

On April 14, 2021, the Keio Museum Commons (KeMCo) celebrated its grand opening. On May 12, the opening ceremony for the Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum is scheduled (Note: Public opening is postponed. Please refer to the Keio History Museum website). I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the background leading to the establishment of these two exhibition facilities.

The construction of a university museum has been a long-held dream of Keio University across generations, but even after passing the 150th anniversary of its founding, it had not been realized due to various circumstances. My involvement with this issue dates back to 2008, during the era of President Yūichirō Anzai, when I was concurrently serving as the Dean of the Faculty of Letters and the Director of the Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko). On the occasion of Keio University's 150th anniversary, the Century Cultural Foundation offered to deposit a portion of its art materials with the Shido Bunko. This led to the acceptance of the artworks and the establishment of the Century Cultural Foundation Akao Memorial Fund through donations in 2009. As Keio did not have a museum at the time, the current Director of the Shido Bunko, Takahiro Sasaki, and the staff members worked creatively to establish a system for storage, exhibition, and research.

In 2009, upon my appointment as Vice-President in charge of academic affairs and facilities under President Atsushi Seike, the founding of a museum became a professional task. I felt strongly about addressing the situation where a vast amount of academic materials accumulated over a long history were scattered in various locations, and even the National Treasure "Jar with Autumn Grass Design" was deposited at the Tokyo National Museum. However, in 2009, Keio's finances were affected by the Lehman Shock, making it impossible to propose a museum concept. I recall obtaining approval from the Executive Board for a future vision of a modest museum-like entity under the keyword "Establishment of a General Academic Resources Center." A large building was difficult both financially and in terms of campus space. Around that time, Jun Murai of SFC, known as the father of the internet in Japan, advised me to consider creating a digital museum instead. This idea was later realized as a digital museum project called MoSaIC (Motive Search and Interactive Catalog), which catalogs the relationships between vast amounts of digital content in a graph structure, developed by the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content (DMC), and was utilized in the founding of KeMCo.

In the meantime, I happened to learn about the Louvre-DNP Museum Lab in Gotanda. It was a unique project that exhibited a small number of actual precious artifacts from the Louvre Museum, such as portraits pasted on Egyptian mummy coffins, while simultaneously displaying detailed explanations and images of similar artifacts as digital content—a method that could be implemented even in a small space. I immediately asked Chairman Yoshitoshi Kitajima of DNP (Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.), who was a Keio Councilor, to let me inspect the facility, including the backyard and technical departments, and I thought, "This is it." During the visit, Ryuji Minemura, a classmate from the Faculty of Law who was serving as an executive officer at DNP, accompanied me. DNP has continued to cooperate with the system construction of KeMCo since then.

Then, in July 2016, through Director Masato Naito of the Keio University Art Center (KUAC), we received a proposal from the Century Cultural Foundation to donate their art materials en masse to Keio and provide a 30-billion-yen donation to expand the fund, in order to pass these materials on to future generations without them being dispersed. Consequently, in April 2017, we held a sub-committee for the consideration of exhibition facilities, bringing together people well-versed in the handling of academic materials, including Mr. Naito, Director Takami Matsuda of DMC, Fumiko Goto of the Art Center, Takeyuki Tokura of the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, and Hiromichi Ando and Toru Yamaguchi of the Faculty of Letters Major in Archaeology and Ethnology. As it was an unofficial meeting and there was no department in charge, Ai Sugisaka from the secretarial staff of the Office of the President helped with room arrangements and recording.

If we were to accept the proposal, what problems would arise? The storage capacity of the Shido Bunko was already at its limit. Would it be possible for the Art Center to accept it alone? Could we use this opportunity to link it to a museum concept? In that case, what would be the relationship with the fact that the Art Center was already a museum-equivalent facility? If we were to build a museum, costs exceeding the donation would be required, and high annual operating costs would be incurred. Many problems were pointed out, but a direction emerged: we should create a storage and exhibition facility that combines the vast academic materials accumulated by Keio University with the art materials of the Century Cultural Foundation.

In October of the same year, I participated with Mr. Tokura in a symposium for university museum professionals of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) held at the University of Hong Kong. I learned that universities around the world are now moving toward establishing new thematic museums—University Research Museums—or museums with high educational functions linked online with overseas universities, and toward the digitalization of museum functions. From that experience, I felt that the era of massive museums displaying analog exhibits was over, and the global trend was toward establishing museums that serve as hubs for education and research with high digital dissemination capabilities.

Therefore, in December, we formally organized the Committee for the Consideration of Academic Material Exhibition Facilities. I asked Director Michio Sato of the Shido Bunko, Director Naito of the Art Center, and Director Matsuda of DMC to create not a massive museum where visitors simply walk around and say "Oh!" at exhibits, but a new type of museum that serves as a place for education from affiliated schools to the university, a hub for research, and above all, a facility with high dissemination power that fuses digital and analog content. Subsequently, a working group including Shinjū Kaneko from the Faculty of Science and Technology (DMC), Takashi Horikawa from the Shido Bunko, Naoko Nishizawa and Takeyuki Tokura from the Fukuzawa Memorial Center, and Fumiko Goto from the Art Center continued the discussions. I had hoped to set the tracks during my term as Vice-President, but in May 2017, I was unexpectedly appointed President and was allowed to continue working on this task.

In November 2017, a Preparatory Office was established with the current Director of KeMCo, Takami Matsuda, as the head. Centered around Yoko Watanabe of the Art Center, who would become the Deputy Director, the team included Yu Homma of the Art Center, Hiromichi Ando and Toru Yamaguchi of the Faculty of Letters Major in Archaeology and Ethnology, Takashi Shigemori, Director of the Office of Facilities and Property Management, successive Heads of the Office of the President Yuichi Tomiyama and Osamu Kuroda, Makiko Konishi of the Office of the President, and after the KeMCo organization was launched, Hiroshi Shigeno, Director of DMC, also joined as Deputy Director. The concept of creating a "Museum Commons" that would serve as a hub for dispersed exhibition facilities within Keio through the fusion of digital and analog was nurtured. It was decided that of the 3 billion yen donation, 1 billion yen would be allocated to construction costs, and 2 billion yen would be set aside as a fund to cover annual operating expenses from its returns. Then, in September 2020, the East Annex housing KeMCo was completed facing Mita-dori, with Mitsubishi Jisho Design in charge of design and supervision, Tokyu Construction for building work, Nippon Densetsu Kogyo for electrical work, and Sanken Setsubi Kogyo for mechanical work. I would like to thank all the companies involved in the construction.

On the other hand, as the KeMCo concept took shape, I began to feel that a separate university museum specialized in conveying the history of Keio was necessary. I turned my attention to the Old University Library, where seismic reinforcement and large-scale repair work were completed in the spring of 2019. Around the time of Keio's 150th anniversary, there was a plan proposed by Masanori Komuro, then Director of the Fukuzawa Memorial Center, to turn the Old University Library into a museum, but it was not realized partly because it was considered difficult to turn a 100-year-old building into a permanent facility.

Construction of the Old University Library began to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Keio's founding in 1907. It was designed by the Sone Chujo Architectural Office (Tatsuzo Sone and Seiichiro Chujo) and built by Toda-gumi (now Toda Corporation), with completion in 1912. I fondly remember Chairman Junnosuke Toda, who was over 90 at the time, visiting me in 2009 and happily telling me, "My grandfather's generation was in charge of the construction of the Old University Library and the Jukukan-kyoku." During the construction of this library, the costs were covered by 350,000 yen in donations. There were voices suggesting that a wooden building could be built for 100,000 yen, and the remainder should be used to establish the Faculty of Science and Technology. However, it was argued that a library to pass on precious collections to future generations must be built of non-combustible materials. Furthermore, the President at the time, Eikichi Kamada, stated that Keio University would lose the public's trust if donations collected for the purpose of building a library were diverted elsewhere. Thus, it became a Gothic building of brick and granite. I wish to thank our predecessors for their wise decision.

Toda-gumi, which handled the library construction over 100 years ago, again handled the great Heisei renovation, and Mitsubishi Jisho Design, which carries the lineage of the Sone Chujo office, and the Cultural Heritage Conservation Design Office were in charge of design and supervision. On the day of the renovation completion ceremony, I was encouraged by the construction officials who proudly stated that the Old University Library, now equipped with an advanced seismic isolation structure through this large-scale repair, would last for another 100 years. I then asked Mr. Tokura to plan an exhibition facility that would properly position the life of Yukichi Fukuzawa and the history of Keio University within modern Japanese history.

I also had in mind the words of His Majesty the Emperor, who attended the 150th anniversary ceremony of Keio University in 2008 and mentioned Keio's history walking alongside modern history. After Mr. Tokura worked hard on a voluntary basis, a Preparatory Office was established in 2020 with Vice-President Toshiro Aoyama as the head. In addition to Mr. Tokura as deputy head, Jeffrey Yoshio Kurashige of the Faculty of Business and Commerce—a specialist in Japanese history who had interacted with Keio through Kendo during his student days at Harvard University—joined the team. Preparations for the exhibition facility to share Keio University's history with the world accelerated, and the opening of the "Keio History Museum" was realized.

For the founding of KeMCo and the History Museum, Vice-President Naoki Watanabe, who has continued to serve as the director in charge of facilities since President Seike's era, provided various innovations. The opening of the museum cafe "TEMPUS," comparable to those in European and American museums, on the first floor of the Old University Library was also Mr. Watanabe's idea. It has also been decided that after the opening, the operation of the Keio History Museum will be handled by the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, led by Director Takashi Hirano. I would also like to express my gratitude to the former Director, Shigehiko Ioku, for his efforts.

Through various connections and the power of Keio's "jinkan kosai" (society), two long-awaited museums have been born in a form suitable for the times. I apologize to everyone involved with KeMCo and the Keio History Museum for the great burden placed on them to reach the opening in such a short period, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their efforts. In addition, although I cannot list all their names here, I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who cooperated in this project.

Regarding the establishment of KeMCo, I feel deep emotion as someone who has been present since the beginning of the interaction between the Century Cultural Foundation and Keio University in 2008. Mr. Fumio Akao, Chairperson Akio Shimizu of the Century Cultural Foundation, and Executive Director Mitsuharu Kanzaki also participated in the grand opening. We shared the words, "We have finally made it this far." I would like to express my gratitude once again to everyone at the Century Cultural Foundation for their kindness and efforts.

In the spring of 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a major impact on society. Looking back, the history of Keio University is deeply connected to infectious diseases. Yukichi Fukuzawa studied at Tekijuku in Osaka in his youth and knew how his mentor, Koan Ogata, worked to spread treatment methods for the cholera epidemic in Osaka. In 1858, the year Keio University was founded, cholera broke out in Edo. This was also the year the Ansei Five-Power Treaties were signed, and it is said that the suspicion that infectious diseases were brought from overseas became a factor in the movement to expel foreigners. From these experiences, Fukuzawa wished to establish a hospital, and that wish was inherited by the first Dean of the School of Medicine, Shibasaburo Kitasato, who discovered the plague bacillus and is known as the father of Japanese bacteriology. Furthermore, the great renovation of the Old University Library was triggered by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

In this milestone year, ten years after the earthquake, two exhibition facilities were born amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope that the "Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio History Museum" and the "Keio Museum Commons" will grow significantly as twin exhibition facilities embodying Keio's "tradition" and "evolution."