by Nguyen Viet 

A clean attempt: Japanese collector Shoichiro Wada (left) tries to clean an ancient bronze jar, one of hundreds objects in his collection.

Japanese artefact collector Shoichiro Wada died on July 29. Since then, the museum he built in HCM City, Huyen Thoai Cham (Champa Myth), has not been open to the public. Viet Nam News presents an article about him written by Dr Nguyen Viet, director of the Centre for Southeast Asian Prehistory, that was published in The Thao & Van Hoa (Sports & Culture) newspaper.

In 2002, when I came back from a business trip in Switzerland, Dr Pham Duc Manh, head of the Archaeology Department at the HCM City National University, introduced me to "an old Japanese man who has some very original bronze statues".

Mr Wada showed me his huge and strange collection. He came to my house by taxi and took me to a storehouse 10km from the centre of the city. I was amazed to see hundreds of big bronze statues, some weighing up to several tones. I then began to respect and admire his efforts, his courage and his passionate love for Viet Nam's antiques in particular and of Southeast Asia in general.

Wheel of life: An ancient object displayed at the Champa Myth museum. — Photos thethaovanhoa.vn

Not long after, the HCM City National University helped him set up a group of experts to research, classify and evaluate this huge collection so that a museum could be founded. The group included myself and Doctor Pham Duc Manh, Vo Sy Khai, and students from the archaeology department at the university.

The collection really impressed us. It included hundreds of deities cast in bronze sitting on shelves made of ceramics, glass and metal. During two weeks' working with the collection, I had the impression I was living in a dream because I couldn't imagine how an old Japanese man could collect such a huge number of artefacts.

Mr Wada was always modest, industrious and careful. He used to wear a jacket containing several pockets, with a short-sleeved shirt inside. He also used to put a cotton wash-cloth on his shoulder to wash his sweat and the dust from his face.

He was born in 1942 and worked as a construction engineer. For a time, he was head of the Hazama Corporation, one of the 10 biggest construction companies in Japan. He understood English very well, even though he didn't speak it fluently.

Mr Wada and I had worked together on several occasions. He was more interested in history and museum than in his job as a construction engineer. He spent most of his time talking about his wish to build the Champa Myth museum to display his collection. He wanted to devote all his efforts and money to the construction of the museum.

Indeed, the most precious objects in his collection include 500 bronze statues of the religious personalities in the Champa-Indian religion. I had the impression that there were two sets of statues from two big temples. Though they were lifeless things, it seemed to me that they could tell many stories.

He always wished his museum would become like a castle in a fairy tale that would lead visitors into dreams about the old Champa dynasties. The 4,000sq.m building he designed and built is located in the south-west of HCM City at 26 ‘A', Tran Dai Nghia Road, Tan Tao A ward, Binh Tan district, HCM City.

At the time of his death, he was finishing the interior decorations of the building to present it to the public. The city officially granted a permit to the museum last December last year. It will be the second private museum in HCM city after the Museum of Traditional Vietnamese Medicine.

The old Japanese died a lonely man after living the life of a single man. He devoted his life to his collection and his museum. — VNS