Hey, that's on of the best things I've heard about in a long time!  I think
exhibits could/should incorporate more of the senses.  I see no problem
with calling this a museum.  Couldn't exhibits, in general, be experienced
more fully with sounds, textures, smells?  I'm all for that in this country
too.  We could follow your lead.

Stephanie Thompson
Exhibits Preparator

----------
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Museum of Sounds (Japan)
> Date: Monday, January 11, 1999 11:06 PM
>
> Greetings for an exta super New Year for you out there on the museum-web!
> There was a short article in today's nespaper of an interesting museum
which op
> ened last year.
> The Hirano Museum of Local Sounds offers nothing but unique and rare
archival s
> ounds of the past daily life of downtown Osaka through its only exhibit=
an old
>  telephone set. Some may argue this is not museum defined by orthodox
theory. W
> ell, let's forget it for a moment. The mission of this unique museum
which was
> established and currently run by a local NPO group is to collect,
preserve and
> offer only various sounds of daily life of the local area which had
dissapeared
>  already but still preserved in the memories of senior citizens. The
museum say
> s they are giving the senior citizen the nostaligia of their past. There
are so
> me ideas that their unique service of offering sounds of the past life
maybe us
> ed as a means of reminisce therapy such as they do at the Museum of
Childhood i
> n Edinburgh and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. Once you pick up the
receiver of
>  the old telephone made in the 1930s (the only exhibit...), recorded
sounds and
>  noises such as squeeks of a bicycle brakes; "Maido!",a cheerful voice
greeting
>  customers at a small local restaurant; sounds of filling a paper bag
with frie
> d rice cookies "okaki; voices of the postman delivering mails to
families; etc.
>  Certainly some sounds are the subject of oral history. address: Hirano
Museum
> of Local Sounds. Zenkoji, 4-12-21, Hirano-honmachi, Hirano-ku, Osaka
City, Japa
> n.
>
> Ryo
> Yasui R.
> Museum Consultant
> 1458-103, Shinkouji-machi,
> Machida-shi, Tokyo 195-0051
> JapanAkifumi
> **********************************
>  voice:  +81 427 36 8244 (direct)
>  fax  :  +81 427 36 5916
>  email:  [log in to unmask]
> **********************************