My three-week internship went by in the blink of an eye. During the first week, I had been given special permission to sit in on the regularly scheduled management meeting. I had also been allowed to join the audit afterwards, which was where decisions were made regarding the purchasing, depositing, and repairing of cultural properties. All full-time members of the curatorial department were allowed to participate. It was a rare opportunity to see cultural properties directly rather than through the glass in the front room of the museum’s vault. Normally, interns wouldn’t attend, but Kurishiro had specially allowed it for the three of us.
“Depositing” was when a temple, shrine, or individual entrusted an item to the museum. Such loaned items were not considered part of the museum’s collection. Common situations were when an item was designated as an Important Cultural Property or had deteriorated to the point that it was difficult for the owner to handle maintenance on their own. The advantage for the museum was that they could exhibit or conduct research on items outside of their possession, expanding the scope of their activities. Also, when an item changed owners or its owner grew old, it was sometimes donated or preferentially sold to the museum, so having a large number of deposited items was ideal in terms of future potential.
That said, the system was based on trust. Kyoto National Museum was a reputable place for people to deposit their cultural properties. Naturally, if the deposited items were to suffer damage or deterioration, they would be withdrawn by their owners. It was a serious responsibility. I also learned that some of the cultural properties had been deposited by antique dealers, which made me wonder if any of them were from Kura.
At any rate, the agenda that day had consisted of three purchases, eight deposits, and two repairs. Each was explained by the researcher in charge, and all were approved. I was excited about the idea of these pieces one day being displayed at the museum.
That week, we had also been given a tour of the conservation center, which specialized in the preservation and restoration of cultural properties. The second week had consisted of exhibit evaluations, visitor surveys, accessibility analyses, and helping KNM’s navigators and cultural property experts as they worked with volunteers.
The most difficult challenge had been Kurishiro’s special lectures. As someone who hadn’t studied law, I had barely been able to keep up with the legal side of museum management, like the Museum Act and the Act on General Rules for Incorporated Administrative Agencies. After that had been a lecture on financial accounting as it related to museum management, where I’d found myself having to ask her to slow down a bit. Her lectures had reminded me that running a museum required both legal and accounting knowledge. Until this internship, I had only been seeing a very small part of the museum.
The third week had provided even more hands-on experience. I’d taken part in simulating the work required for crowdfunding extra income, assisting with exhibition-related events, helping to produce videos and social media posts for publicity, and creating flyers for our supporting organizations. The museum’s operations were more diverse than I’d thought.
And so, the three-week frenzy came to an end. On the final day, we interns presented our reports on what we had learned. Then, we gave our closing remarks.
Eri Kimura went first. She stood in front of everyone and bowed nervously. “Thank you for these past three weeks. The program was so high-tier that I nearly wanted to quit at one point, but it was truly an eye-opening experience. I’m very grateful. It’s now my dream and goal to work here for real one day. Thank you very much.”
Everyone clapped. I nodded in agreement.
Next was Segawa, who was scratching his head shyly. “Um, as I mentioned before, my family runs a dyeing business in Nishijin. Ever since I was little, I assumed I’d be taking that over when I grew up. I wasn’t against it, but I wasn’t particularly proud of it either. It was just the natural outcome. But studying at KNM made me realize how amazing our work is. I’d like to apply what I learned and turn our family business into one of the cornerstones linking Kyoto’s culture to future generations. Thank you very much.”
Everyone clapped again.
Last, it was my turn. Kurishiro and the other staff who had worked with me were all looking in my direction. I took a deep breath and said, “I grew up in Saitama Prefecture and moved to Kyoto when I was in high school. In an unexpected turn of events, I started working part-time at an antique store and became fascinated by antique art. I wanted to become an appraiser like the people I admired, so I decided to aim for a curator certification first. I chose a prefectural university because I didn’t want to burden my parents with private school tuition. After starting my third year, I realized I didn’t have a plan for what to do after getting the certification. I wanted to be involved with art, but I didn’t know what I could do.”
I wanted to become an appraiser like Holmes, but that didn’t mean I wanted to keep working at Kura. One day, we would probably get married and run the store together. But before that, I wanted to do something by myself.
“I chose the management internship because my respected mentor advised me to, and I thought I could leverage my experience with exhibitions,” I continued. “If it hadn’t been for his suggestion, I would’ve chosen ceramics, in which case I likely wouldn’t be here right now.”
The staff members laughed awkwardly at that.
“But I’m really glad that I was able to experience the field of management. I know what I want to become now. I want to study management more and put it into practice. My biggest aspiration is to be involved with a museum or gallery in the future, but even if that isn’t possible, I want to help artists by becoming a manager who can nurture their creativity and convey the appeal of their art. I never would’ve found this dream if I hadn’t come here. I’m very grateful to have had this precious experience. It has been an amazing help. Thank you so much.”
I bowed deeply, and everyone clapped.
“Just between you and me,” said Kurishiro, “when the prefectural government asked me to hire interns, I honestly thought, ‘We don’t have time for that!’ But after seeing the three of you working your hardest, learning as much as you can, and even discovering your future career goals, I now feel that we should continue offering this program.”
The staff all nodded in agreement.
“Thank you for your hard work over the past three weeks,” she said, handing each of us a souvenir.
We thanked her again, thus marking the end of our internship.
Since it was the final day, Holmes had said that he would pick me up from the west side of KNM. When I told Eri and Segawa this, they covered their mouths and said, “Wow.”
“Like a boyfriend bringing you a bouquet at your graduation ceremony?” Eri asked.
“Dang, that’s pretentious,” said Segawa.
“No, we were just going to have a wrap-up party,” I said, shaking my head.
“The three of us should have another one too,” said Eri. The museum staff had already held a farewell party for us.
“Yeah,” said Segawa.
As we were chatting about how fast time had gone by, we walked out of the east gate.
“Ooh!” Eri exclaimed. “I knew Mashiro’s boyfriend would be hot, but I didn’t think he’d be this hot!”
“Yeah, he’s seriously good-looking,” said Segawa.
At a loss for words, I turned to look at Holmes, surprised that he had come all the way to the gate to pick me up. But what I saw shocked me even more. The handsome young man with shiny black hair was wearing a casual outfit consisting of a summer jacket, T-shirt, and chino pants. It wasn’t Holmes. It was...
“Evening, Aoi.”
I looked up at him, my eyes and mouth wide open. “En...sho?”
“Having hair makes me look like a different person, eh?”
“Is it a wig?”
“No, I grew it out normally.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Can we talk?”
“Oh, um, Holmes is supposed to be picking me up.”
“He’s over on the street to the west. We can talk at Toyokuni Shrine.”
I took out my phone and saw a message from Holmes.
“I ran into Ensho. He wants to talk to you, so I’ll park my car nearby and wait. Please let me know when you’re done.”
“It’s true...” I murmured, then looked up at Ensho and said, “All right.”