Unryuzu

The powerful depiction of the large, bulging eyes, sharp claws, and dynamic waves is impressive, but there is something endearing and comical about the painting, with its drooping eyebrows, crooked mouth, and large nose. Yes, this is the “Unryuzu” (literally meaning “painting of the dragon in the clouds”), commonly regarded as the masterpiece of the 18th-century painter Shohaku Soga.
　This artwork, which spans ten meters in width, was displayed in March 2012 at the Tokyo National Museum during the special exhibition, “Japanese Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,” to commemorate the museum’s 140th anniversary. This marked the first time the painting had been shown in Japan following five years of restoration.
　With over 100,000 pieces, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has the world’s largest collection of Japanese art and is known as the “Hall of Fame of Asian Art” on the East Coast of the United States. Over the course of more than 100 years since its founding, figures such as Ernest Fenollosa and Tenshin Okakura built the collection into what has grown to become the world’s premier collection in terms of both quality and quantity. When some 90 pieces from this collection—potential national treasures—made a temporary trip back to their homeland for the special exhibition, many people visited the museum to catch a glimpse of them. In particular, the item that drew the most attention as the centerpiece of the exhibition was the Unryuzu.
“Isn’t there a way to make this rather endearing Unryuzu more familiar to us through the power of digital technology?” This is the motivation behind the creation of the smartphone app, “My Unryuzu.”
　Developed as part of the “Picture Book Project of the Future” in collaboration with Dai Nippon Printing, this app allows users to view the Unryuzu and create their own versions of it. In “View Unryuzu” mode, users can freely explore the Unryuzu by swiping the screen or using pinch-in and pinch-out gestures. They can also save the image at their preferred position and set it as their phone’s wallpaper.
　By selecting the "Make Your Own Unryuzu" mode, users can customize the dragon’s face by adjusting its eyes, eyebrows, and fangs to their preferred sizes and angles, as if they were playing Fukuwarai (a traditional Japanese game similar to "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"). And by drawing in the dragon’s iris as the “finishing touch,” their very own original Unryuzu is complete!
　When we invited submissions of original Unryuzu images upon the app’s release, we received a wide variety of artwork, ranging from a troubled-looking Unryuzu with drooping eyebrows to a humorous Unryuzu with eyes of different sizes. It was wonderful to see what one might call a success in leveraging the power of digital technology to spread a rather cartoonish and popular image of Unryuzu to a wide audience.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA), where Unryuzu is housed, is known not only for its extensive collections but also for its active outreach programs. It actively seeks to provide opportunities for the community to engage with art through various experiences beyond simply viewing artworks at exhibitions—such as by offering courses led by experts and artists, or by hosting participatory programs tailored to specific age groups and workshops for children and families.
　In many Western countries, there are numerous museums besides the MFA that consider outreach to be one of their key activities. At these museums, it is indeed common to see children sketching artworks as part of their art classes; on weekends, a truly rich selection of workshops is offered, and it is surprising just how many educational art books are sold in the museum gift shops.
　Japan has been criticized on numerous occasions for its lack of outreach activities. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has identified educational outreach as one of the roles museums should fulfill—in addition to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting items, as well as conducting investigations and research—but implementation remains challenging in practice.
　Responses to a survey by Tanseisha reveal the complex reasons behind these difficulties: “Only a minority of museums have established a philosophy, basic policy, or goals for outreach activities; there are very few museums with departments dedicated to outreach; many staff members in charge of outreach activities hold joint appointments for duties other than outreach; employment opportunities for staff in charge of outreach activities are extremely limited, both in terms of the number of positions available and the number of employees; and many museums are facing declining budgets for education and outreach activities.”
　Some large museums in Western countries have a dedicated team of more than 50 staff members in their education departments, but in most cases in Japan, a curator holds a dual role in outreach, and there are only a few museums in major cities that have dedicated personnel with teaching expertise.
Part of the reason museums in the United States are actively pursuing these activities is that artistic activities are recognized as nonprofit activities under national policy and are therefore eligible for tax exemptions. Because museums qualify as nonprofit organizations, they are exempt from corporate tax and property tax, and activities related to their establishment and earnings from related activities are also tax-exempt. Furthermore, art-related items sold in museum shops are not subject to sales tax. There are many museums across the United States, in addition to the MFA, that consider educational outreach to be one of their key activities.
　Given the lack of preferential tax treatment, reliance on government funding is inevitable in Japan, but the small scale of government budgets for culture is also a real problem. The proportion of the Japanese government budget allocated to cultural purposes is about one-tenth of that in France or South Korea. The private sector therefore has no choice but to step up and energize cultural activities using its own resources.
　Is there a way to revitalize outreach efforts in Japanese museums as well? Is there a way to redesign museums as places of learning that are open to the community, rather than merely storage spaces for artworks? As a starting point, let’s bring artworks out of the museum using the power of digital technology and utilize them as educational materials.
　“My Unryuzu” is part of this effort.