The Kyushu National Museum (九州国立博物館, Kyūshū Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan) opened on October 16, 2005, in
Dazaifu near
Fukuoka—the first new national museum in Japan in over 100 years, and the first to elevate the focus on history over art.[1] The distinct modern impression created by the architectural facade is mirrored in the museum's use of technological innovations which are put to good in making the museum's collections accessible to the public. For example, the museum's extremely high resolution video system, with the latest image processing and color management software, serves both in documenting the objects in the museum's collection and also in expanding access beyond the limits of a large, but finite exhibition space.[2]
The striking wood and glass building in the hills, it hosts important collections of Japanese artifacts, particularly
ceramics, related to the history of
Kyūshū.
It hosts temporary exhibitions on the third floor, while the permanent collections are on the fourth floor. The collections cover the history of Kyūshū from
prehistory to the
Meiji era with particular emphasis on the rich history of cultural exchange between Kyūshū and neighboring
China and
Korea.
Unlike most museums in Japan, which contract out
conservation work, the Kyushu National Museum has an extensive on-site suite of conservation labs and associated staff, serving as the major conservation center for all of western Japan.[3]
2007—IAI National Museum is merged into Independent Administrative Institution National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (
NICH), combining the four national museums with the former National Institutes for Cultural Preservation at Tokyo and Nara [6]
Masaoka, Kenichiro, Masahiro Kawakita, Masayuki Sugawara, Masaru Kanazawa, Kenji ohzeki, and Yuji Nojiri. (2006).
"Image Quality Management for the Super Hi-Vision System at the Kyushu National Museum" (abstract), IEICE (The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences. E89-A: 2938-2944.