Introducing the Heritage of Mr. Norihei Miki: 'Japanese History of the last 50 years Reflected on TV Ads' on-line Exhibition 
Junko Iwabuchi, Keio University, Japan
http://www.documentshowa.jp
As a commissioned project by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content (DMC), Keio University in conjunction with Kawasaki City Museum and Tokyo Wonder Site under the auspices of Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, opened an on-line exhibition titled "History of ‘Showa’ reflected upon [the] Japanese Dinner Table" on Jan. 25, 2008 at: http://www.documentshowa.jp
The "Showa" era literally means the period of "enlightened peace," or the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Hirohito, from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989; the animated TV ads of Momoya Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese processed food company, that are introduced in this exhibition date back to 1958. In many pieces of this on-line exhibition, the subjects are based on traditional Japanese popular arts and culture, such as Kabuki, Rakugo, Kodan and Ozashiki-gei. Animated characters derived from Mr. Norihei Miki, a versatile comedian, who appeared in this series of TV ads, performed these arts skillfully to the background music of Shamisen or Ohayashi. In this regard, these TV ads are the Heritage of Mr. Norihei Miki and the reflection of Japanese History of the last 50 years.
Video files of these TV ads were previously uploaded at the video distribution platform VOLUMEONE that was developed and has been operated by the DMC Institute since the fall of 2006 at Keio University; however the new interface was developed using AS3 and Papervision 3D technologies to present a complete on-line exhibition for this particular purpose. The video files are read into this new interface directly from VOLUMEONE, which is used as the database. This is possible since each video file on the VOLUMEONE is defined by XML and tagged individually.
The author and the organizers of this on-line exhibition believe that this demonstration will certainly open a new horizon for the new era of digital curation, using video files stored on a video distribution platform such as VOLUMEONE.
Demonstration: Demonstrations - 1 [Demonstrations]
Keywords: VOLUMEONE, flash video, Showa, on-line exhibition, popular culture, Keio University
