Speaking to the Future Series
Historical Records Compiled by Museum Founder, Ninagawa Noritane

Ninagawa Noritane (1835-1882) was born into a family of officials appointed to Toji temple in Kyoto. In 1869, he began to work for the Meiji government, and from 1872 he entered the Museum Bureau of the Ministry of Education, where he played a part in the founding of the present-day Tokyo National Museum. This exhibition presents a collection of materials compiled by Ninagawa in preparation for the establishment of the museum.

In 1871, Ninagawa oversaw the photography of Edo Castle, which was destroyed by fire the following year. These photographs survive in the Photographs of Edo Castle album (Important Cultural Property). Also in 1871, the Grand Council introduced its Plan for the Preservation of Antiques and Old Properties, Japan's first system for cultural property preservation.

In 1872, Ninagawa, in collaboration with others including former museum director Machida Hisanari, organized the Ministry of Education's Yushima Seido Exposition, the first exposition ever to be held in Japan. Later that year, he poured his energy into cataloguing the artworks and antiquities held by temples and shrines across the nation. This project came to be known as the Jinshin Survey of Cultural Properties, its name deriving from the Chinese horoscope for the year in which the survey was held.

The Jinshin Survey occasioned the collection of copies, rubbings and photographs of a vast number of historical artworks, including works from the Shosoin treasures. These records have since been preserved by this museum as the Jinshin Survey Catalogue of Temple and Shrine Treasures and the Jinshin Survey Photographs. Designated as Important Cultural Property, these resources are acclaimed as vestiges of groundbreaking efforts toward the preservation of cultural properties for posterity.

In addition to these materials, this exhibition also introduces documents and records related to a survey of historical art objects led by Ninagawa at the end of the Edo period (1603-1868). From the mid to late 1850s, Ninagawa had already begun to travel the country and produce copies of portraits held by temples and shrines, a great number of which were donated to the museum by Ninagawa himself.