Image: Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum
Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum in Seto, Aichi, has updated the English language version of its permanent exhibition audio guide as part of the renovation of its main building. According to a case study published by Trivector Co., Ltd., the company handled the English translation, narration recording and production for the guide, working from Japanese text prepared for the museum’s permanent displays.
The project places the museum’s interpretive materials in a new format aimed at visitors who use English in the galleries. Trivector says it was responsible not only for translating the script, but also for recording the narration and producing the audio files, making it a full audio-guide production effort rather than a translation-only assignment. The company describes the script as designed to balance accuracy with ease of listening.
That balance was especially important for a museum focused on ceramics, where technical terminology and names for techniques can be difficult to render clearly in another language. Trivector says it aimed to communicate such specialist terms precisely while also paying attention to pacing and the rhythm of spoken narration, so the guide would be understandable in actual use. The case study emphasizes that the work was intended to make the language suitable for listening, not simply for reading.
Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum opened in 1978, the year of the prefecture’s centennial, on a hillside in Seto, according to the museum’s own English pages, which also state that it stages four special exhibitions a year. Trivector’s case study says the collection includes three items designated Important Cultural Properties. The museum is in Seto, a city long associated with pottery production. Its own site carries no page describing the audio guide, so the vendor case study remains the only detailed account of the English version.
The English audio guide project was tied to the reopening of the museum’s main building after renovation. Trivector’s case study says the museum had previously relied on staff members for multilingual support and volunteers for voice recording, but found it difficult to maintain a consistent level of quality in translation and audio. The renovation period provided an opportunity to commission the work from a specialist company.
Trivector says the museum reopened in April 2025 after a large-scale refurbishment. Per the museum’s own site guide, the site comprises the Main Building, Design Aichi (formerly the South Building), Tsukurutoko! Tōgeikan, the ceramics studio building, and the Kama no Kioku (‘Kiln Memories’) I and II displays of excavated 12th–13th-century kilns, at 234 Minamiyamaguchi-cho, Seto. Within that renewed setting, the permanent exhibition audio guide has now been translated into English and professionally recorded, with the museum’s ceramic terminology and exhibition interpretation adapted for listening audiences.
