Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the questions most often put to the Shibuya Higashi Archives. Should yours not appear here, please send it through the contact form.
- Q. Does the Shibuya Higashi Archives really exist?
- A. That depends on what "exist" refers to.
The Archives is not a museum with a building on any actual map.
The official exhibitions app, the collection, the exhibition records, the Director, the staff of twelve, the conservation studio, and the museum shop, however, do exist.
The Archives therefore exists to a degree that cannot quite be called nonexistence. - Q. Where in Shibuya is it?
- A. It is said to be on the east side of Shibuya.
As the Archives exists only on the internet, however, it cannot be reached on foot, by train, by taxi, or by bus.
At present, the most reliable way to visit is to open the official exhibitions app. - Q. Is the collection real?
- A. The collection is built from public-domain and CC0 high-resolution images released by museums around the world.
In that sense, the works and records at its source are real.
The Archives, for its part, restores, corrects, and recomposes them, and accessions them into an exhibition space of its own. - Q. Is it acceptable to alter the images of works?
- A. The Archives works principally with released images whose terms of use are clear.
On that basis, and on the premise of respect for the original works, their makers, the holding institutions, and the released data, it carries out its recompositions.
The aim is not to consume the works of the past, but to bring about new encounters within the viewing environments of the present. - Q. What is Jirinpa?
- A. Jirinpa is the first exhibition of the Shibuya Higashi Archives, and its permanent one.
It recomposes Rinpa folding screens, the forty-eight hiragana, and Japanese onomatopoeia in a jet-black three-dimensional space. - Q. Can children enjoy it?
- A. Yes.
As the displays involve touching hiragana and onomatopoeia, children enjoy them intuitively.
On occasion, however, it is the adults who stand still longer. This is not a malfunction. - Q. What do the Director and the staff of twelve do?
- A. The Director watches over the whole, to keep the Archives from becoming too easy to explain.
The twelve staff members are responsible for preservation, research, conservation, display, records, and guidance, as well as the initial response to unexplained occurrences. - Q. Is there a museum shop?
- A. There is.
It will carry exhibition-related goods, catalogues, posters, and digital content, as well as beautiful things whose use has not been determined. - Q. I would like to make an inquiry.
- A. Please write to us through the contact form.
Your message will be reviewed, and you will receive a reply from the staff member concerned — or from someone of a very similar quietness.