ARC-iJAC Activities

The 122nd International ARC Seminar will be held as a webinar on Wednesday, July 26, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speaker: Travis SEIFMAN (Associate Professor, Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University)

Topic: to be announced

Date: Wednesday, July 26, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online via Zoom, free of charge (no reservation required)

The 121st International ARC Seminar will be held as a webinar on Wednesday, July 12, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speaker: Takeshi ABEKAWA (Project Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo)

Topic: to be announced

Date: Wednesday, July 12, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online via Zoom, free of charge (no reservation required)

The 120th International ARC Seminar will be held as a webinar on Wednesday, June 21, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speaker: Akira MATSUDA (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo)

Topic: The interplay between facts and imagination in the (hi)story of Sumadera

Date: Wednesday, June 21, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online via Zoom, free of charge (ARC members only; no reservation required)

There will be no YouTube livestream for this seminar.

The 119th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, June 7, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speaker: Kazuma YOSHIMURA (Vice President, Kyoto Seika University & Commissioner for Media Arts Strategy, Agency for Cultural Affairs)

Topic: Museum/archive/network of MANGA～About an example of Kyoto Seika University

Date: Wednesday, June 7, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online via Zoom, free of charge (no reservation required)

*This Webinar is open to everyone, and non-ARC members are also invited to participate via YouTube.

The 118th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, May 24, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speaker: Chiaki TAKAHASHI (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Letters, Doshisha University)

Topic: Prize Contests and Photographs: Communities of Magazines and Readers

Date: Wednesday, May 24, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online via Zoom, free of charge (no reservation required)

*This Webinar is open to everyone, and non-ARC members are also invited to participate via YouTube.

We are pleased to announce that 1,541 ukiyo-e prints held by the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) are now available on the website of the Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University.

Ukiyo-e Database for Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

https://www.dh-jac.net/db/nishikie/search_BAMPFA.php?enter=BAMPFA&lang=en

Note: From the ARC Ukiyo-e Portal Database, you can access this database by entering 'BAMPFA' in the 'collection'-field.

BAMPFA is the art museum of the University of California, Berkeley, in the heart of downtown Berkeley.

In September 2019, the Art Research Center (ARC) obtained authorization from the museum to digitize its collection of ukiyo-e prints, which has now been completed. Upon adding the metadata, we reported to the museum on the project in February 2020 and have been working to improve the data during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coordinating with the museum, the ARC has made the database publicly accessible from the ARC website. A button for each item provides a direct link to the BAMPFA collection database.

Among the 1,541 ukiyo-e prints in the collection, 595 landscape prints (名所絵) make up the largest share, followed by 501 prints of beautiful women (美人画), 224 actor prints (役者絵), and 83 warrior prints (武者絵). Regarding ukiyo-e artists, the collection comprises 359 ukiyo-e prints by Hiroshige, 164 ukiyo-e prints by Kunisada I, 118 ukiyo-e prints by Hokusai, and 72 ukiyo-e prints by Kuniyoshi.

Particularly noteworthy are the 134 surimono (摺物) and 120 pillar prints (柱絵), for which the opening of this database provides a foundation for further research.

The 117th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, May 10, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speaker: Naoki ISHIBASHI (Professor, Graduate School of Data Science, Musashino University)

Topic: Artizon Cloud: A Multidatabase System Architecture for a Museum and Its Applications

Date: Wednesday, May 10, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online via Zoom, free of charge (no reservation required)

*This Webinar is open to everyone, and non-ARC members are also invited to participate via YouTube.

We are pleased to announce that 1,481 ukiyo-e prints from the Mukai Nobuo Collection of Senshu University Library are now available online in the Ukiyo-e Portal Database of the Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University.

Ukiyo-e Database of the Mukai Nobuo Collection, Senshu University Library

https://www.dh-jac.net/db/nishikie/search_senshu.php?enter=senshu&lang=en

Note: From the ARC Ukiyo-e Portal Database, you can search for the Mukai Nobuo Collection by entering '向井信夫文庫' in the 'collection'-field.

The late Mukai Nobuo was known as a collector and researcher of Edo-period Japanese books. His collection comprises a wide variety of books from the late Edo period, such as gesaku (戯作)--including sharebon (洒落本), kokkeibon (滑稽本), hanashibon (咄本), and ninjobon (人情本)--kanshibun (漢詩文), kyoshi (狂詩) and kyobun (狂文), kosho zuihitsu (考証随筆), Yoshiwara-and kabuki-related works, picture books, and more.

While collecting these Japanese books, he also collected ukiyo-e prints and ukiyo-e albums of the same period. It is a well-balanced collection of late-Edo period actor prints (役者絵), warrior prints (武者絵), prints of beautiful women (美人画), and caricatures, with a sizeable collection of 690 works by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年).

The Art Research Center (ARC) has collaborated in this project by digitizing the collection and providing detailed metadata.

While the Edo-period Japanese books of the Mukai Nobuo Collection are released sequentially by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, they are also accessible through the ARC database system.

Senshu University Library's Nobuo Mukai Collection Browsing System

https://www.dh-jac.net/db1/books/search_senshu.php?lang=en

Note: From the Early Japanese Books Portal Database, you can search by entering '専修大学' as the owner of the collection.

Regarding the use of rare books and materials of Senshu University Library, please refer to the library website https://library.lib.senshu-u.ac.jp/information/collection.

The 116th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, April 26, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

1. Speaker: Simon KANER (Executive Director, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, University of East Anglia)

Topic: Stonehenge and prehistoric Japan--Archaeological exchanges between Japan and the UK: Current and future trends

2. Speakers: Ryoko MATSUBA (Lecturer in Digital Japanese Arts and Humanities, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, University of East Anglia)
Joseph BILLS (MPhil, Japanese Studies, University of Cambridge)
Bori KO (MA Student, History of Art and Archaeology of East Asia, SOAS University of London)
Liam HEAD (MA Student, Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies, University of East Anglia)

Topic: Implementing the ARC Model in the UK: Digitising Sword Ornaments at the British Museum

Date: Wednesday, April 26, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

Participation: online via Zoom, free of charge (no reservation required)

*This Webinar is open to everyone, and non-ARC members are also invited to participate via YouTube.

We are pleased to announce the Call for Manuscript Submissions for the Art Research Center's journal ART RESEARCH vol. 24-2.

As an academic journal specializing in arts and culture, the purpose of ART RESEARCH is to widely publicize the results of the research projects and activities conducted by the Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University, and its partner institutions and collaborative researchers.

Since its establishment in 1998, the Art Research Center (ARC) has been selected for several national grants as a center of excellence for research in culture, art, and information science. In FY2019, the center assumed the role as the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art & Culture (ARC-iJAC) upon its accreditation by the MEXT as an International Joint Usage/Research Center. The ARC is highly regarded as a leading hub for the digital archiving of Japanese art and culture.

Our online journal will be published several times a year, and at the end of the fiscal year, a print booklet compiling all contributions will be distributed, as we hope to increase the submission opportunities for researchers.

We look forward to receiving your manuscript.