This blog is operated by the Institute of Critical Zoologist's (ICZ) archivist and seeks to open a dialogue about general happenings at ICZ’s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) and maintain a scholarly dialogue on the Instiute's research, history and heritage. Located in Japan, SCRC seeks to collect and preserve materials that document the history, culture, heritage, and language of the the ICZ and to make these materials available to the public.

"To speak about Matsuo Sugano’s work is not an easy task. His office lies in a chaotic underground vault at the ICZ. It is filled with thousands of images and documents. I am not exaggerating. Hardly anyone enters his office for fear of disturbing the precarious placements of his many stacks of images. They threaten to cave in on you but Matsuo seems to know they never will. Everything that we ever need to know about the ICZ’s past has an image which Matsuo can call up from his archives. Any question can be answered with an image."

Zhao Renhui, on Matsuo Sugano's role in the ICZ

In 2006, Zhao Renhui and Matsuo Sugano embarked on a project to work with the archives of the Institute of Critical Zoologists. During the project, Matsuo Sugano kept an online journal of his experience while working with the ICZ's archive. A selection of which has been made available on this website.

Some texts translated by Zhao Renhui with revisions to the original text by the author.

A version of the text on this blog was given at a lecture at ArtSuperScience Forum, Tokyo, on October 5, 2009.