“I want it to be a place that feels like home.”
–The Phantom Exposition was an incredible place, just as rumored!
Yoshitsugu Uno (hereinafter, the same)Thank you. What impressed you?
–The giant objects in the Great Buddha Hall were amazing, but I got the impression that there were a lot of mannequins throughout the museum.
Yes, there are over 500 of them.
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–500 of them?!
Most of the items are ones I’ve purchased myself or ones I’ve taken from museums. Recently, we’ve also been receiving more and more donations of mementos, such as antiques, dolls, and belongings of deceased relatives, from members of the public who want to have their items seen here by many people rather than storing them at home.
–That’s the new area called “Showa Treasure Hall” that was completed on New Year’s Day last year.
Items that can be found in any home are more popular than rare items. Rare items are just a matter of looking at, but items that are a memory of everyone can be viewed while overlapping with your own past memories.
We want the entire Maboroshi Expo to be a place like a home where anyone can return to whenever they feel tired or stuck on something.
–I got the impression that there were a lot of sex-related goods, such as love dolls.
Everyone seems to be worried about what to do with them, worried about what would happen if someone found out, or embarrassed if someone saw them throwing them away. That’s why so many of them come here.
–So does that mean things can be sent anonymously?
Yes, there is. The love doll named “Jessica-chan” was apparently displayed in front of a restaurant in Kabukicho, but when the restaurant closed and no one wanted it, a customer of the restaurant who found out about this place brought it over.
When I arrived here at 5am, there was a compact car parked at the entrance, and an unfamiliar man got out of the car and asked, “Can I have this?”
–To think that you would even take on something like that… What other unusual ways do you take things in?
Every year, students from Tokyo University of the Arts donate the mikoshi they made for their school festival. After the festival, about 16 to 40 students come to carry it in and assemble it. In addition, students from all over the country donate graduation projects that they don’t have anywhere to store.
–It’s truly a theme park built together with everyone. Why did you decide to create the Phantom Expo in Ito City in the first place?
I was working at a publishing company in Tokyo, so I chose a place that I could visit on a day trip from Tokyo. Ito has hot springs, and in the past there were many art galleries and museums, so it was a place that tourists visited all year round. Nowadays, many of the facilities have closed down.