This Youtube video has English subtitles. If they don’t show up, please change the settings on your Youtube.

Associate Professor of Museum Informatics

SATO Koto

What are better museums?
Research to preserve and convey history and tradition.

I am doing research on what a better museum is.

I think that museums are things that people are familiar with in their daily lives. However, not many people know much about what museums do. Museums exist to serve society. They play various roles. Museums can help answer questions held by society. They also preserve precious items that need to be preserved and conveyed to the future by society. Expert knowledge and skills are required in museum work.

For a museum to carry out even better activities, they must continually study what kind of issues and missions there are in society and what museums can do for them in addition to carrying out specialized research and study. That is the kind of research that I am involved in.

This is a museum with a very long history. It has existed from even before the establishment of Yamagata University. It has a collection of more than 30,000 precious materials.

How can we communicate the value of these materials to the people of today? I introduce them from various angles and try to be creative in our exhibits and other activities.

I want to roll out activities that will further enhance – among people of the area and those connected to Yamagata University – the understanding of Yamagata and what kind of a place it is.