Dr. J. Eleazar R. Bersales, head curator of USC Museum (USCM), met with the director and assistant curators of Hiroshima University Museum (HUM) on Saturday, Nov. 17, to explore possible linkage between the two museums.
Dr. Toshihisa Asano, HUM director and HU professor of human geography, welcomed Dr. Bersales to the museum after which a tour was carried out led by Dr. Norio Shimizu, museum curator, assisted by Dr. Nao Ishikawa of the HU School of Letters, who acted as interpreter. Like USCM, HUM does not have its own building but occupies spaces at the HU College of Education with satellite museums spread in different college buildings on campus.
One of these buildings is the Cultural Assets Center, a two-storey edifice adjacent to the museum that, according to HU archaeologist Dr. Tsugifumi Fujino, houses artifacts excavated in 32 sites within the university campus dating from the Paleolithic (about 30,000 years ago) to the post-war period. Dr. Fujino showed Dr. Bersales some of these artifacts at a mini-exhibition inside the Center.
After the tour, a meeting was held at the HUM curatorial office to determine possible areas of future cooperation between the two museums, with Dr. Bersales extending an invitation to the HUM director and curators to visit USCM soon.
Dr. Bersales’ visit is timed with the 4th Philippine Studies in Japan Conference, also being held at HU, where he will be presenting a paper. The meeting was arranged earlier by USC alumnus Dr. Lawrence Liao, professor of biology and environmental science at HU. Funding for this trip was made possible by a collaborative grant from The Japanese Foundation-Manila.
