This is a series of conversations between Kataoka Mami, Director of the National Art Research Center, and guests active in various fields. The guest for the fourth conversation in the series was Shinoda Ken-ichi, President of the National Museum of Nature and Science.

After graduating from the Faculty of Science at Kyoto University, Shinoda gained experience serving in various capacities, including as assistant professor at Saga Medical University (now Saga University). Since 2003, he has worked for the National Museum of Nature and Science, where he was appointed museum president in 2021. Specializing in molecular anthropology, he conducts research delving into the origins and evolution of humanity by performing DNA analysis on the bones of ancient peoples, mainly in Japan and surrounding countries, and in Central and South America. Books he has authored include Jinrui no Kigen (“The Origin of Humanity,” published by Chuko Shinsho, 2022) and Kahaku to Kagaku (“The National Museum of Nature and Science and science,” published by Hayakawa Shinsho, 2024).

Established in 1877, the National Museum of Nature and Science is the only national museum in Japan that offers comprehensive exhibitions of natural history and the history of science and technology. The museum also garnered attention in 2023 when it ran a crowdfunding campaign aimed at raising 100 million yen to ensure it could maintain and augment its world-class collection of specimens and materials, but ended up collecting about 920 million yen in donations from some 57,000 people.

In the talk, they covered topics such as the commonalities and diversity in humanity revealed in DNA research, situations in daily life in which we can sense art, things that science and art have in common, and the crowdfunding campaign run by the National Museum of Nature and Science.