ARC-iJAC Activities

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

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

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

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.

Background:
Supported by the ARC-iJAC, the research led by Dr. Ewa Machotka and Dr. John Pavlopoulos (Stockholm University) has pursued the large-scale digital geospatial exploration of places depicted in Japanese early modern ukiyo-e landscape prints through Natural Language Processing (FY 2021). Their follow-up project aims to apply NLP technology to inscriptions on ukiyo-e landscape prints to facilitate a large-scale exploration of textual information featured in those prints (FY 2023).

Project leader: Dr. Ewa Machotka (Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Stockholm University)
Project manager: Dr. John Pavlopoulos (Dept. of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University)
Project members: Konstantina Liagkou, Panagiotis Papapetrou, Marita Chatzipanagiotou

Thank you very much for your time today. Could you please tell us the motivation for your ARC-iJAC research project Natural Language Processing for a Geospatial Exploration of Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints?

Machotka: The last several decades saw the rise of interest in the concept of Global Art History, understood as a heterogenous transnational and critical study of the world's cultural production. One of the challenges of this new research direction is the question of how to acknowledge the conceptual and material heterogeneity of artistic production across the world in a way that does not support a universalist understanding of cultures. This concern prompted our research. We saw that Japanese early modern landscape prints, as globally recognizable non-Western pre-modern artifacts, offer a critical testbed for considering these issues.

The 115th International ARC Seminar will be held as a Webinar on Wednesday, April 12, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speaker: Ryuzo UENO (Professor, College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University)

Topic: The Acceptance of"Sanguozhi" in Japan through Ukiyo-e

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

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

Supported by the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), Art Research Center, the training course Generating 3D Model for Museums Collections Using Photo-Scanning Technique was held at the Atun Museum, Egypt, on March 7-9, 2023.

Overview:

Sharing knowledge and capacity building of curators working in the Egyptian museums at the Ministry of Antiquities is one of the important ways that achieve the required development of the policies and means of preserving the Egyptian cultural heritage in a sustainable framework. In this regard, sharing advanced practical know-how and experiences that have been developed with the Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University in Japan achieves this goal with the support of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

Objectives:

The photo-scanning technology contributes to preserving the objects of Egyptian museums, especially at the time of crises and disasters, such as the looting and destroying the Mallawi Museum in Egypt in August 2013, in addition to the massive destruction of the Islamic Art Museum after the Cairo Security Directorate bombing on January 24, 2014, the restoration and preservation of museum groups, add to contributing to the combating and recovery of smuggling of cultural heritage assets crimes.

The photo-scanning technique generates 3D modeling for artifacts in Egyptian museums. A digital database can be created and referred to, allowing the artifacts to be identified easily through fabric, components, and elements.
The dependence on the photo-scanning application on cultural heritage assets in Egyptian museums comes as a reflection of its practical and successful implementation on the objects of the Kyoto City Archaeological Museum in Japan under the supervision and support of the ARC. It aims to create 3D modeling of collected objects in a modernist geometric form (X, Y, Z) through precise photography with a special technique, processed with the Agisoft Metashape software v2021.

Date: March 7-9, 2023, 9:00-14:00 EET

Topic: Generating 3D Model for Museums Collections Using Photo-Scanning Technique

Venue: The Atun Museum, Minya Governorate, Egypt

Organizer: The Museums Sector at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt

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

Please note that this was a non-public event.

Supported by the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), Art Research Center, the training course Generating 3D Model for Museums Collections Using Photo-Scanning Technique will be held at the Atun Museum, Egypt, on March 7-9, 2023.

Overview:

Sharing knowledge and capacity building of curators working in the Egyptian museums at the Ministry of Antiquities is one of the important ways that achieve the required development of the policies and means of preserving the Egyptian cultural heritage in a sustainable framework. In this regard, sharing advanced practical know-how and experiences that have been developed with the Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University in Japan achieves this goal with the support of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

Objectives:

The photo-scanning technology contributes to preserving the objects of Egyptian museums, especially at the time of crises and disasters, such as the looting and destroying the Mallawi Museum in Egypt in August 2013, in addition to the massive destruction of the Islamic Art Museum after the Cairo Security Directorate bombing on January 24, 2014, the restoration and preservation of museum groups, add to contributing to the combating and recovery of smuggling of cultural heritage assets crimes.

The photo-scanning technique generates 3D modeling for artifacts in Egyptian museums. A digital database can be created and referred to, allowing the artifacts to be identified easily through fabric, components, and elements.
The dependence on the photo-scanning application on cultural heritage assets in Egyptian museums comes as a reflection of its practical and successful implementation on the objects of the Kyoto City Archaeological Museum in Japan under the supervision and support of the ARC. It aims to create 3D modeling of collected objects in a modernist geometric form (X, Y, Z) through precise photography with a special technique, processed with the Agisoft Metashape software v2021.

Date: March 7-9, 2023, 9:00-14:00 EET

Topic: Generating 3D Model for Museums Collections Using Photo-Scanning Technique

Venue: The Atun Museum, Minya Governorate, Egypt

Organizer: The Museums Sector at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt

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

Please note that this is a non-public event.