Tibet supporters in Japan have delivered six hundred petitions to the Ueno Royal Museum
コメントは受け付けていません。 Tibet supporters in Japan have delivered six hundred petitions to the Ueno Royal Museum in response to their controversial show “Tibet: Treasure from the Roof of the World”
Date: December 24, 2009 at 3pm
Location: Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
Recipient: Mr. Seiichi Muzuno (Director)
Delivered by: Team Tibet (Tatsumura Yukari), We Love Free Tibet (Kubo Takashi), The Group for Palden Gyatso (Mr. Osada),
Japan Coordinator for ITSN (Mr. Kamata) and 2 others.
Purpose:
As leaders of Japan’s Tibet support groups, we have collected petitions from the public to demand that the exhibition organiser include the accurate modern history and culture of Tibet and to condemn the museum for ignoring our demands since the opening of the exhibition. Six hundred signatures have been collected in a remarkably short amount of time. The petition was directed to the following organisations that have been involved with the exhibition:
Ueno Royal Museum
Daiko Advertising Inc.
The Ministry of Culture
Mr. Seiichi Mizuno, the director of Ueno Royal Museum, has agreed to personally receive the petition, and we had an opportunity to question him face-to-face. The following is the conversation from our meeting with him:
Q: Please explain how you have curated this exhibition.
A: When we were deciding whether or not we should have lent our museum to the exhibition as a venue, we expressed our concerns to the organizers and told them to be extra careful concerning the unrest in Lhasa and Uyghur. Since Asahi newspaper had been involved with the Free Tibet exhibition in the past, I am assuming that Asahi wanted to appear balanced in their approach to China. However, the most important point for us is the artistic value of the exhibition. According to specialists this exhibition has its artistic value; therefore, we decided to lend the museum to this exhibition.
When the exhibit began in Fukuoka, there were protests. We thought
that canceling the exhibition in Tokyo would have far reaching
consequences and would severely impact the museum’s international relations. Therefore, we decided to continue the exhibition at
the Ueno Royal Museum. We would use Daiko Advertising Inc. as an
organizer and look to Asahi newspaper to provide publicity.
Q: What is your opinion of displaying the stolen Buddhist artefacts by China?
A: This is a complex issue and even more so from the viewpoint of the international museum community. We have exhibited items from the Louvre and the British Museum in the past. We cannot single out this event and comment on the issue even if they were actually stolen by China’s Peoples Army.
Q: The display of those precious Buddhist artefacts is quite poor.
A: The specialists were overseeing this area. I can give you an example of when the statue of the National Treasure Ganjinwajo was shown in France: the display of the statue was totally unlike what we normally would do in Japan. The display reflects the nationality of the viewers. Ideally, the Tibetan Buddhist artefacts should be displayed as close to the original style in Tibet; however, we left its supervision to the specialists- Daiko Inc. which is in charge of it. I must honestly say that I was unaware of that concern.
Q: What is your opinion on the fact that the exhibition is misleading the public on the issue of Tibet by excluding certain historical facts of Tibet?
A: So far over 120,000 people have visited the exhibition, and I assume that 90 percent of the visitors were not aware of the issue of Tibet.
In that context, rather than taking it as “misleading the pubic on the issue,” I hope we are providing an opportunity to develop an accurate understanding of Tibet for the visitors who come to see these artefacts. We hope to inspire some people to develop an accurate understanding of Tibet and the issues surrounding it. I believe that our mission as a museum is to exhibit valuable art, and I am proud to say that these Tibetan Buddhist artefacts from the exhibition are mysteriously beautiful.
Q: At the opening of the exhibition, a Tibet supporter and a Tibetan who reside in Japan spoke to a representative of Daiko Inc., regarding the exhibition. In the conversation, the representative commented “There are no Tibetan people as such. Only the Tibetan tribe (in China) exists.” What is your view of this comment?
A: That is clearly different from my view and it is an inconsiderate comment.
As far as our exhibition, “Tibet: Roof of the world,” I have my own personal doubt whether this event has lived up to the quality that the Ueno Royal Museum normally demands – I wonder if the exhibition paid an enough attention to the international focus on the Tibet issue. I am planning to report this to Daiko Inc. when the exhibition is over.
Q: The Ueno Royal Museum is a historic venue that has been maintained by the Japan Art Association, which was founded in 1879 (Meiji 12) and is headed by Prince Hitachinomiya. Perhaps, China wanted to have an association with the “Royal Museum” in order to legitimize its project.
A: I cannot answer that.
Report from Yukari Tatsumura who was in the team to deliver the petitions:
“I was pleased to have an opportunity to raise those questions directly to Mr. Mizuno, the director of the Ueno Royal Museum. The conversation gave me the impression that the event was purposely designed to promote the Chinese government as the benevolent guardian of Tibetan culture to the Japanese public. They did this by creating a wide range of advertising campaigns on the event through Japanese media.”
