Nintendo-backed poetry museum has game roots

TOKYO--Over a year ago, GameSpot reported that former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi and the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Project Foundation were building a museum dedicated to classic Japanese poetry. The museum was to be known as Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, which loosely translates as One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets (the title of a classic poetry anthology containing 100 Japanese poems from poets who lived during the seventh to the 13th century).

Today, Nintendo announced that the museum is hoping to open its doors this October. Nintendo designers are forming the bulk of the design team. It was also announced that visitors can expect some high-tech surprises when they visit the site.

According to Kyoto's daily newspaper, Kyoto Shinbun, the exhibition hall on the museum's first floor will be "paved" with 70 45-inch monitors, taking up about 30 square feet of floor space.

The monitors will be used to reproduce scenes of Kyoto from back in the Heian-kyo period to the present day. The images will be displayed using computer-generated visuals. The hope is that visitors will feel as if they are walking through history.

The Ogura Hyakunin Isshu museum will also have handheld devices that will receive radio signals and display details of the exhibits--such as historical locations associated with the poets--on their screens. Not surprisingly, the museum will feature game machines where visitors can play quiz and card games against computer-generated images of the poets. "We hope to create a world of Hyakunin Isshu that no one has ever experienced," a Nintendo senior manager told the newspaper.

The museum's construction cost, $7.4 million, has been donated by Yamauchi, who also acts as the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Project Foundation president. The foundation is dedicated to promoting the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu text.