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MATSUKATA HOUSE MUSEUM
Museum Experience
The Matsukata House is the former residence of Nishimachi International School founder Tané Matsukata. The building itself holds over 100 years of history, and its parlor now serves as a physical and digital museum that celebrates and preserves the rich legacy of the school. Opened in 2023, it is a space for education, archiving, and even nostalgia, for all members of the Nishimachi community.
Matsukata House Museum Logo
Matsukata House Museum Logo
The final design incorporates the school’s signature blue and features an angled view of the entryway’s overhang and windows — a combination immediately recognizable to anyone who has stood in front of Nishimachi. It was the popular choice for its familiarity as well as it's clean lines.
ARTIFACT PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographs, scans, and digitizations played a key role in creating the museum. Once a digital copy was made, each image was carefully and consistently adjusted to most accurately represent the artifact, focusing on areas such as color, transparency, and texture.
Working Around Limitations
Despite minor limitations such as a "smaller-than-ideal" lightbox, attempts were made to work around to ensure a clean, professional presentation of all material. To the left, you can see the 4 step process employed in the photography process:
Photograph the artifact
Edit out details on the artifact
Adjust lighting and background
Add caption
PHYSICAL EXHIBIT
From the abundance of artifacts, a select few were carefully chosen for their historical significance and placed inside a clear, low-height display case (specifically chosen to be visible even for younger students). Each item was accompanied by a hand-crafted, mounted label.
DIGITAL EXHIBIT
A touchscreen display in the center of the museum provided access to detailed records of the artifacts, an interactive timeline of the school’s history, and (most popular among alumni) a virtual bookshelf featuring yearbooks dating back to 1965. Working with an external partner, we used Intuiface to bring these interactive elements to life and make the school’s history accessible in a dynamic way.
For privacy reasons, I am unable to share the exhibit’s contents.
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