Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan
A. General Works
Human Activities in the Quest for Knowledge
Collection: The Providence Athenaeum, a library in Providence, USA, that has been in operation since 1836 (2015). The building follows the Greek Revival style, with the sides of the shelves extending to the ceiling, reminiscent of the columns of a Greek temple.Reading: “Reading is not history,” stated a message from Wardah Books in Singapore (2016).Observation: The Sydney Observatory, Australia’s oldest observatory, on a hill overlooking Port Jackson (2008). One of its functions was to measure time through astronomical observations. The yellow time ball on top of the tower signaled the exact time to ships in the bay by moving up and down.Calculation: Hokusai-SailingShip, a supercomputer that has been in operation since 2020 at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) in Wako, Japan (2024).Experiment: The High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Japan’s largest particle physics laboratory, located in Tsukuba (2024). This accelerator generates and observes composite particles by colliding electrons and positrons at near-light speeds, enabling the discovery of new physical laws.Thinking: The Thinker, originally created for The Gates of Hell but often regarded as a tangible symbol of contemplation, on display at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia (2015).Research: The study of Kumagusu Minakata (1867–1941), a Japanese naturalist, biologist, and folklorist, located in Tanabe, next to the deep forests of the Kii Mountains (2023). He stayed in the U.S. and U.K., published numerous papers in Nature, and later lived mainly in Tanabe as an independent researcher, studying nature and leading a conservation movement.Diffusion: A mimeograph machine that helped diffuse knowledge in Singapore, displayed at the Malay Heritage Centre (2016).Interaction: In 1743, Benjamin Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in America dedicated to the exchange and development of ideas, in Philadelphia (2015).
