On Saturday, March 26, 2022, members of Oka and Watanave Laboratories ran a workshop in which young students in Oita City experienced Re:Earth, a digital mapping project that includes data of the local Bungo Funai archaeological site. The participants, ranging from sixth grade to high school, were Funai Junior Guides, having passed a certification examination to become historical guides and work on historical research of the city. The Funai Junior Guide project is an initiative of Oita City to promote history education and practice for citizens.

During the workshop, Professor Hidenori Watanave talked about the fun of digitally mapping historical information and real-time information. His talk was followed by a lecture on the lives of medieval Bungo Funai dwellers by Professor Toshio Kage of Nagoya Gakuin University, an expert on the medieval Bungo region. A demonstration of Re:Earth with data from the Bungo ruins was performed by Masao Oi, a graduate student in the GSII, who has previous teaching experience. Another GSII master’s student, Takuya Tokuhara, who is also currently teaching at a high school, led an active learning session with the aim of deepening the learning of the participants.

The purpose of this workshop was to confirm whether digital maps can be a platform for collaboration among university researchers and local government cultural property managers to promote history education and tourism. Participants expressed many positive opinions during and after the event, and it was a wonderful opportunity to realize the necessity of returning and applying the results of historical research to society.

Text: Mihoko Oka (Associate professor)
Proofreading: David Buist (Project senior specialist)