At the Sendai Miyagi Museum Alliance (SMMA), we have been surveying the damage and restoration processes of 16 facilities in Miyagi, and 1 facility in Fukushima, following the March 11th 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. This website presents data accumulated as of March 2013, reedited specifically for online presentation. By keeping a record of the restoration processes that regional museums underwent following the disaster, and by learning about the various networks involved in these processes, we hope to provide knowledge that contributes to be better prepared for future disasters, along with a basis for thinking about the importance of regional museums.

SMMA is a consortium that began with the aim of bringing together various museums in the Sendai Miyagi area, and helping them develop functions beneficial to local communities, through cooperation across fields of expertise.

"Survey Report on the Disaster Damage and Restoration Processes of Museums"

Survey Overview

The survey was conducted in the following 3 stages.

Survey 1:
Survey of damage to public cultural facilities caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake

We sorted out information on the damage to public cultural facilities in the Tohoku region and their reopening situations. Particularly in regards to our analysis for Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, we divided the facilities into categories of "public halls," "art museums" and" museums"; this served as the preliminary survey for the main research.
Survey period: April September, 2012

Survey 2:
Outline survey on SMMA member museums

We organized information on actions taken by Sendai City following the disaster as well as the reopening situations of SMMA member museums, putting together a profiling analysis.
Survey period: June November, 2012

Survey 3:
Interviews with museum staff members

Based on Survey 2, we interviewed facility staff members, mainly curators, about the processes each facility had undergone following the disaster, leading to their restoration and the situations they were experiencing after reopening. The questions asked in the interview are listed in the appendix. For facilities outside of Sendai, including the Ishinomaki Cultural Center, the Ishinomori Mangattan Museum, the Rias Ark Museum of Art, the Fukushima Art Museum, and the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, certain questions were altered to accommodate the disaster damage and characteristics of the individual facility. Survey period: October 2012 March 2013

NB: For this research we chose to place both art museums and other museums under the single category of "museums," while placing both types of museums along with theaters and halls under the single category of "cultural facilities" whenever necessary. Also, the phrase "public cultural facility" is used to distinguish a facility from "private museums."

<Survey Team>

Head Office, Sendai Miyagi Museum Alliance
Professor Sakaguchi's Office, Department of Architecture, Sendai National College of Technology (Taiyo Sakaguchi, Associate Professor; Miharu Saijo, Takaya Suga (Department students); Daiki Shiratori, Shoko Haga, Sonomi Matsukawa (regular course students)

<Facilities Interviewed>

Sendai City Museum (10/16/2012)
Sendai Literature Museum (10/23/2012)
Sendai City Museum of History and Folklore (10/24/2012)
Serizawa Keisuke Art and Craft Museum, Tohoku Fukushi University (10/30/2012)
Sendai City Jomon Site Park (10/31/2012)
Revival of the World of the Glacial Period (10/31/2012)
Sendai Mediatheque (11/14/2012)
The Miyagi Museum of Art (11/27/2012)
Yagiyama Zoological Park (12/10/2012)
Sendai Astronomical Observatory (12/11/2012)
3M Sendai Science Museum (12/12/2012)
NB: The Tohoku University Museum provided us with documents.

Interviews with non-SMMA participants
Ishinomaki Cultural Center / Ishinomori Mangattan Museum (2/7/2013)
Rias Ark Museum of Art (2/11/2013)
Fukushima Art Museum (3/6/2013)
Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art (3/26/2013)

Report

Analysis of the research report in the fiscal year 2012, as well as reports and analysis related to the Great East Japan Earthquake by each participating museum and its associates are introduced (March 2015 Update).

For the Sustainability of Museums
New Arrangements and the Roles of Specialists and Institutions in the Process of Reopening after Disaster
Taiyo Sakaguchi (Sendai National College of Technology) and the Sendai National College of Technology Architectural Design Sakaguchi Research Group (PDF)

「Museums and the Great East Japan Earthquake」（PDF）

<Japanese Only>

わわプロジェクト
山内宏泰インタビュー　リアス・アーク美術館

あいちトリエンナーレ2013
リアス・アーク美術館

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宮城歴史資料保全ネットワーク

京都国立博物館
No. 71 東日本大震災̶文化財レスキュー／京都国立博物館考古室長　宮川禎一

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vol.4「八木山動物公園」

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