ARC-iJAC Activities

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

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.

Background:
Kelly Midori McCormick is an assistant professor of Japanese history at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, specializing in the history of the material and visual culture of modern Japan.
Carrie Cushman is the Edith Dale Monson Gallery Director and Curator at the Hartford Art School. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University and is a specialist in postwar and contemporary art and photography from Japan.
Supported by the ARC-iJAC, their project team has created and launched the bilingual website Behind the Camera--part database, part educational tool--spotlighting a diverse range of international experts on the history of Japanese photography from the perspective of gender and power.

Thank you very much for your time today. Could you please tell us about your motivation to start your FY 2021 ARC-iJAC project Expanding the Study of Japanese Photography and Gender: Modules for Teaching and Public Access?

Prof. McCormick / Prof. Cushman: Conceived in 2017, Behind the Camera was established to address the lack of scholarship and access to primary sources on the histories of Japanese women in photography. The idea for Behind the Camera was sparked with a simple question: what resources existed on the roles that women have played in the history of Japanese photography?

Since the introduction of the first camera to Japan in 1848, women have been integral to the social constructions of photography as a visual technology, art form, and commercial practice.

Women photographers require a history that intersects social and political history with the close analysis of their work and its implications for visual culture in Japan.

Beyond accounting for historical omissions, we sought ways to interrogate the overwhelmingly male-centered historiography of Japanese photography and to address the ideologies that have consistently reinstated gendered hierarchies within the photography world.​​ We knew that these efforts could not be individual but would require a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach.

To that end, in 2019, we brought together a multidisciplinary group of scholars from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel for a two-part panel at the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, sponsored by the Japan Art History Forum. The conversations generated at the AAS made clear that the histories of Japanese women in photography required a sustained platform that would allow for research to develop organically and collaboratively.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the project transformed into a website where specialists share carefully researched arguments and source materials made available to the public in both English and Japanese. In times when travel to archives and conferences is difficult, this website seeks to bring photographs, scholarly perspectives, and historical resources directly to you.

We are delighted about the launch of your digital humanities website Behind the Camera: Gender, Power, and Politics in the History of Japanese Photography.

Can you share some of your experiences with us during the implementation of this project? Have you come across any particular challenges?

Prof. McCormick / Prof. Cushman: The Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan is an incredible resource for researching Japanese visual culture and producing new information about it. We were thrilled at the opportunity to work with the ARC but the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic meant that our initial goals of using the recording facilities to conduct interviews with current Japanese women photographers were not possible.

We were able, however, to use the generous funding to produce an interview between the photographer Nagashima Yurie and art historian Handa Yuri. This interview will be the first to introduce a wide range of audiences to Nagashima's scholarly work on the history of the Japanese women photographers who gained recognition for their work in the 1990s and Nagashima's critical interpretation of the male photo critics who shaped the way the world saw this generation of women photographers.

Is there anything particularly fascinating you found while implementing this project?

Prof. McCormick / Prof. Cushman: To create the modules for the site, we approached historians of photography to present an issue from the history of Japanese photography from a gender studies perspective. One of the most gratifying things about this project is how many new angles scholars have approached and created their modules from. Many have seen the new format of a video lecture paired with an image archive as a structure that allows them to explore new topics or synthesize larger projects in a compelling and captivating way.

For instance, Dr. Elena Creef drew on networks of Japanese war brides that her mother is a part of to create a collection of family photographs that illustrate their experiences as they moved from Japan to the United States in the postwar period.

While the majority of the modules are focused on historical events, a selection of the modules has been created by curators who reflect on exhibition practices in relationship with the gender histories of Japanese photography.

Maggie Mustard's module on the exhibition she curated, The Incomplete Araki: Life, Sex, and Death in the Work of Nobuyoshi Araki, held at the Museum of Sex, New York in 2018, examines the many challenges with presenting work by the very controversial photographer in the context of the MeToo movement.

Do you have plans to expand this website, for example, by adding new modules? If possible, could you please tell us more about them?

Prof. McCormick / Prof. Cushman: We will be adding a new collection of modules to the website in 2023. We are excited to present lectures by Ayelet Zohar on Ishikawa Mao; Kerry Ross on marketing cameras to women in the Taisho and early Showa period; Judy Legewood on May Ebihara's anthropological photographs in Cambodia; Phillip Charrier's lecture, Shigeo Gocho, women, and everyday resistance in 1960s Japan; Miryam Sas on Rethinking Japanese media theory, and interviews with Eileen Smith on photographing Minamata; and an interview between Komatsu Hiroko and Franz Prichard.

How did you first connect with the Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University? / How did you hear about the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC)?

We saw a call for applications and after investigating the resources at the ARC were excited to partner with Ritsumeikan in the hopes of spreading the word about the project and collaborating with Japanese scholars.

Is there anything else you would like to comment on or highlight?

We are actively seeking contributors in Japan and around the world who would like to contribute new modules on the history of Japanese photography from new perspectives. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have a proposal for a module.

(This interview was conducted by Yinzi Emily Li.)

The 114th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, January 18, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

1. Session

Speaker: Nozomu ATAKA (Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate School of Letters, Ritsumeikan University)

Topic: The Reality of Temples and Shrines in Nara in the Late Edo Period, Seen from Neifu kiji, a Diary of Kawaji Toshiakira, a Magistrate of Nara

2. Session

Speaker: Shiori Totsuka (Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate School of Letters, Ritsumeikan University)

Title: On Some Problems of Censor's Seals as Seen in the Katsukawa School's Ukiyo-e

Date: Wednesday, January 18, 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.

Supported by the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), the exbibition 'Arewa Textiles of African Print (「アフリカ×日本：アレワ紡の時代―ナイジェリアと日本の繊維生産 1963-2005」)' will be held at the Museum and Archives, Kyoto Institute of Technology from January 10, 2023.

Exhibition period: January 10 (Tues) - February 17 (Fri), 2023

Organizer: Museum and Archives, Kyoto Institute of Technology

Co-organizer: International joint research project 'A Digital Archive Connecting Modern Design and Industry: Towards a New History of Machine Textile Printing in Modern Kyoto' (「新しい近代京都機械捺染史構築に向けて―近代デザインと産業史をむすぶデジタル・アーカイブを一助として―」), adopted by the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC)/ Project leader: Aya Ueda (Part-time Lecturer, Kwansei Gakuin University and Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts)

Supported by: University Mseum Association of Kyoto, International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University

More information. ↓ ↓ ↓

The 12th Forum for Knowledge, Arts, and Culture in Digital Humanities will be held online on Saturday, February 18, 2023. We are now calling for presenters to join this event.

■ Date: February 18 (Sat), 2023

■ Participation method: Hybrid (at Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus & online via ZOOM)

Venue: Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus
2-150 Iwakura-cho, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-8570, Japan 　　

*Depending on the situation of the spread of COVID-19, the event may be held entirely online.

■ Registration:

Please register via the URL below:

https://forms.gle/9LMBxercKFYkWw4v6

Registration deadline: December 28 (Wed), 2022.

■ Presentation time: 20 minutes including Q&A (to be adjusted according to the number of presenters).

(Presentation time and instructions for submitting presentation materials will be sent to the presenters after the deadline.)

Participation is free of charge.

■ Research fields:

1. Research in the arts and culture and other fields using information technology

2. Research in information technology that can be applied to arts, culture, and other fields

■ Samples of research presentation content:

1. Structural analysis, modeling, visualization, and knowledge discovery of information and knowledge in the arts and other fields

2. Representation, production, organization, database construction, search and provision of information and knowledge in the arts and other fields

3. E-publishing, digital libraries, digital museums and art galleries

4. Terminology in the arts and other fields, thesaurus

5. Information and knowledge distribution and intellectual property rights in the arts and other fields

6. Open data, data publishing, linked data

7. The internet, semantic web, web x.0, etc.

8. Other research and developments related to information and knowledge for culture at large

Organizer: The Forum for Knowledge, Arts, and Culture in Digital Humanities

Facilitators: Ryo Akama (Ritsumeikan University), Mamiko Sakata (Doshisha University), Naoki Takubo (Kindai University), Takehiko Murakawa (Wakayama University)

Co-organizers: The Kansai Division of the Art Documentation Society and the Kansai Division of the Japan Society of Information and Knowledge

In cooperation with: International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Inquiries: kacimeeting+2023■gmail.com (please change "■" to "@")

About the Forum for Knowledge, Arts, and Culture in Digital Humanities

 Along with the rapid development of the digital and information environment in recent years, we are seeing more and more cross-disciplinary research in academic fields with an awareness of "information" and "digital". This trend is gaining momentum in higher education and research activities as well, and educational programs and course activities related to this trend are being enhanced.

　The need for opportunities for academic exchange among undergraduate and graduate students and young researchers studying in such programs under new research themes in line with the times is ever increasing.

　For this reason, the Forum for Knowledge, Arts, and Culture in Digital Humanities was established in 2011 as a place for presentation and exchange, with a focus on graduate students and young researchers interested in information and knowledge research in arts, culture, and other related fields in mind. 11 research meetings have been held to date.

　This meeting is positioned as a place where participants can mutually discover new research themes and methods through human exchange in different fields, and we also welcome exploratory and adventurous presentations that are slightly different from conventional conference presentations.

■ Related links:

→Japan Art Documentation Society

The application for FY 2023 International Joint Research with Research Fund is open until January 20 (Fri), 2023, 5PM (JST). Successful projects will receive research funds from the ARC-iJAC.

Learn more about the application here.

• Guidelines
• Application Form

The 113th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, December 21, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

1. Session

Speakers: Midori Ogita (Lecturer, Humanities Division, NIT(KOSEN), Maizuru College)

Topic:'Classroom Practice in NIT(KOSEN) Colleges for the Integration of Classics and Science: Using the Kuzushi-ji Reprinting Learning and Support System'

2. Session

Speaker: ZHANG Yutao (Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate School of Information Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University)

Topic: 'A Study on Speech Recognition System for Kuzushiji Transcription'

Date: Wednesday, December 21, 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.

Professor Keiji Yano, Deputy Director of the Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University, will serve as chair for the public symposium 'Current Status and Issues of Place Name Standardization: Toward the Establishment of a Place Name Database and a Place Name Standardization Organization', organized by the Science Council of Japan.

Date: December 18 (Sun), 2022, 13:00-17:00 JST
Participation: Online
Anyone is welcome to attend (registration required).

Details>>

Registration form>>

The Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University, is pleased to announce the conclusion of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Akita International University (AIU), a leading institution in international liberal arts education in Japan.

On November 28, 2022, a signing ceremony for the MoU was held at Akita International University and attended by Professor Ryo Akama (College of Letters), Director of the ARC, and Professor Koichi Hosoi (College of Image Arts and Sciences), Deputy Director of the ARC.

Akita International University was represented by Professor Monte Cassim, President of AIU, and Professor Yoshitaka Kumagai, Vice President of AIU. As former President of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) and former Vice-Chancellor of the Ritsumeikan Trust, Professor Cassim has been pivotal in bringing about this partnership.

The MoU provides a stable framework to advance collaborative projects in digital humanities, in particular, with regards to the building of a digital archive database of materials related to traditional art and culture of the Tohoku region by integrating AIU's Akita Folkloric Performance Art Archives in the ARC Portal Database System--hence, facilitating the dissemination of such materials worldwide.

The Akita Folkloric Performance Art Archives comprise audiovisual records of more than 300 folkloric performance arts in Akita Prefecture held by AIU.

In addition, the MoU shall strengthen academic research on both sides through the organization and participation in joint research programs and events as well as the exchange of researchers from both institutions.

Following the signing ceremony, a round-table discussion was held, where Professor Kumagai introduced the Akita Folkloric Performance Art Archives and Professor Akama explained how the integration of the archives into the ARC Portal Database System worked. Furthermore, both parties shared their thoughts on preserving Japanese cultural heritage.

Official website of Akita International University (AIU): https://www.aiu.ac.jp

The Akita Folkloric Performance Art Archives: https://www.akita-minzoku-geino.jp/archives/

Art Research Center (ARC) databases: https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/e/database/