ARC-iJAC Activities

Day 1: Friday, February 21, 10:00 -16:50 JST (tentative)
Day 2: Saturday, February 22, 10:00 -17:00 JST (tentative)

Hybrid event (ARC & online via Zoom)

Presentations marked with ★ are available via YouTube live stream.

Organised by: International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC) & Digital Humanities Center for Japanese Arts and Cultures "Program for Supporting Research Center Formation", Ritsumeikan University

Click here for the program.

A special session of the International ARC Seminar under the theme of "The online publication of the ARC's Japanese old maps, including the British Library Map Collection" will be held as a webinar on Wednesday, February 19, 18:00-20:00 JST.

About this seminar:
Since the 2000s, historical GIS, which combines historical geography and geographic information science, has been rapidly developing in Japan and around the world as part of digital humanities. However, most of the geospatial data in Japan, such as modern maps and ledgers, has not been digitized and is not available in GIS format. In order to develop historical GIS, it is essential to digitize paper-based geospatial data, convert it to GIS format, and make it publicly available. Furthermore, in order to make it available to people who are not GIS experts, such as museum curators and educators, it is necessary to provide an easy-to-use framework for online searching and GIS analysis.

This seminar will introduce the development of 1) the 'ARC Map Portal Database', which is a platform for old Japanese maps, 2) the Japanese version of "Map Warper," and 3) "Old Japanese Maps Online." With these components, users will be able to search for and select old maps, share geo-referenced maps, and create detailed maps on a variety of topics.

In order to create the ARC Map Portal Database, we will digitize old maps held by institutions in Japan and overseas, make them publicly available, and publish them on Japan Search. The maps will be standardized with bilingual metadata in Japanese and English to facilitate searching. Map Warper in Japan will make the maps available for non-commercial use, and will introduce crowdsourced georeferencing to improve the accuracy of the maps.

In this seminar, we will report on the digitization and publication of nearly 400 old Japanese maps held by the British Library, which has one of the world's largest map collections, and we will hear about the content from Dr Xia-Kang Ziyi of Oxford University.

The program is as follows:

Moderator: Dr. Travis Seifman (Associate Professor, Kinugasa Research Organization/ARC Research Manager)

18:00-18:45
Speaker: Dr. Xia-Kang Ziyi (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford)
Topic: "Pre-modern Japanese Maps at the British Library: Past and Present"

18:45-19:15
Speaker: Prof. Yano Keiji (Geography Department, College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University/ARC Deputy Director)
Topic: "Online Construction of Japanese Old Maps"

19:15-20:00 Q&A, Demonstration

About the speakers:

Dr. Xia-Kang Ziyi (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford)
Xia-Kang recently completed her DPhil in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, and her thesis examines the agency of the Tsushima domain in Tokugawa Japan-Chosŏn Korea relations. She is interested in diplomacy and cross-cultural interactions in early modern East Asia, as well as the political authorities of Tokugawa Japan. In early 2023, Xia-Kang worked with Tom Harper, the Curator of Antiquarian Mapping of the British Library, on the doctoral placement project 'Pre-1900 Japanese-produced maps in the British Library'. She now teaches at Oxford.

Prof. Keiji Yano (Geography Department and Art Research, Ritsumeikan University)
Keiji Yano (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. (D.Sc.)) has been Professor of Human Geography and Geographic Information Science at the Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan since April 2002. Before joining Ritsumeikan in 1992, he was at the Tokyo Metropolitan University as Assistant Professor of Geography, where he also earned his Master and PhD degrees in Geography. His professional roles include being Member of Science Council of Japan (https://www.scj.go.jp/en/index.html), The president of the Human Geographical Society of Japan (http://hgsj.org/english/), the Councilor of the Association of Japanese Geographers(https://www.ajg.or.jp/en/), and the past president of GIS Association of Japan (https://www.gisa-japan.org/english/index.html). His research interests are grouped around the use of Geographical Information Systems and quantitative methods in urban analysis. This includes information integration within GIS, geodemographics, geodesign, spatial interaction models, urban modelling, virtual cities, digital humanities, history of quantitative geography, and history of GIS.

Date: Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 18:00 - 20:00 JST

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

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

Background:
Akiko Yano studied in Japan for a BA in international relations at Tsuda College, and for a MA and PhD in Japanese art history at Keio University. She specialises in Japanese painting history. She had an opportunity to study in the UK for one year as a visiting PhD student, based at SOAS University of London, thanks to a scholarship provided by the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC). She continued working in the UK, first as a Research Assistant for the SOAS-British Museum (BM) project on Osaka actor prints 'Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage: 1780-1830' (2005), and then as a Research Fellow for the SOAS-BM project on shunga 'Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art' (2013). After joining the BM as a curator in 2015, she has been responsible, with two other colleague curators, for the Japanese collection, which holds over 40,000 objects.

Dr. Yano, thank you very much for your time today. What initially sparked your interest in Japanese art history?

Yano: I was interested in art (mainly painting) and history as a teenager, but I was not particularly looking at the discipline of art history for my BA as I was more interested in international relations through cultural communication. Thinking about my future career, however, I realised that I would feel more of a sense of mission if I could work on the preservation of the cultural heritage of Japan, and hence learnt, belatedly, about a job called a 'curator'. From that point onwards, I switched my specialty to art history with an emphasis on Japanese art history since I was in Japan and thought Japanese art would be easily accessible.

On January 6, 2025, an article in the newspaper "San-in Chuo Shimpo" introduced the initiative led by Prof. Ryo Akama (College of Letters/Director of the ARC) to make the digitized materials in the collection of the Tsukiji Sugoroku Museum available to the public through the ARC database system,.

The database, containing 650 Sugoroku items, representing about 500 different kinds of Sugoroku game boards, dating from the Edo period to the early 1950s, has been collected by Osamu Yoshida, President of the Tsukiji Sugoroku Museum (https://sugoroku.net/).

Tsukiji Sugoroku Museum Database:
■ URL：https://www.dh-jac.net/db/nishikie/search_tkjSG.php

Related article: https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/j/news/pc/023655.html

The Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University is pleased to announce that illustrated books, ukiyo-e painting manuals, and other early modern Japanese books in the collection of the Royal Museums of Art and History of Belgium (MRAH) have been made available online, complete with images for each page:
https://www.dh-jac.net/db1/books/search_belgium.php.

These works can also be found by searching for "MRAH" in the "Owner" field in the ARC Early Japanese Books Portal Database: https://www.dh-jac.net/db1/books/search_portal.php.

Takagi Yoko previously conducted a survey of the Museums' collection of early modern Japanese books, and published a simple listing of works in the collection in: "Berugii oritsu bijutsu rekishi hakubutsukan shozo wakan kosho ni tsuite," Bunka joshi daigaku kiyo: jinbun / shakai kagaku kenkyu, vol. 9 (2001 Jan), pp. 187-206. Click here to view or download the article: https://bunka.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/686.

The ARC has collaborated with the MRAH to digitize its extensive ukiyo-e collection since 2007, making 8,750 ukiyo-e prints accessible through the ARC Japanese Prints (Ukiyo-e) and Paintings Portal Database: https://www.dh-jac.net/db/nishikie/search_belgium.php.

Following the digitization of ukiyo-e prints, the digitization of early modern books also began, although the project faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project was restarted in 2023, and 572 books, with images for each page, have now been released online in a single batch.

Please note: While the size of the images made publicly available in the ARC databases are provided at a limited resolution, researchers seeking higher-resolution images of these works are advised to contact the Image Studio at the Royal Museums of Art and History of Belgium directly.

The 145th International ARC Seminar will be held as a webinar on Wednesday, January 15, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speakers: Dr. Kiichi SUGANUMA (JSPS Post-doctoral Fellow, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University)

Topic: "The Possibilities of Digital Collection in Western Medieval-Renaissance Study"

Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2025, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

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

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

The 144th International ARC Seminar will be held as a webinar on Wednesday, January 8, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speakers:
Naomi KAWASUMI (Professor, Area Studies Program, College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University)
Masahiro KATO (Professor, Area Studies Program, College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University)

Topic: 'The Society and Landscape of 1950s Okinawa as seen in Photographs'

Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2025, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

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

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

The 143rd International ARC Seminar will be held as a webinar on Wednesday, December 25, from 18:00 JST.

The program is as follows:

Speakers:
Takashi NUMAGUCHI (Associate Professor, Department of Musicology, Tokyo University of the Arts)
Chiaki SAWADA (Associate Professor, Department of Performance & Composition, Kunitachi College of Music)
Akemi TSUKADA (Librarian, Kunitachi College of Music Library)

Topic: 'The Collection of Early Printed Music of Beethoven in the Kunitachi College of Music Library: The Significance and Pleasure of Chamber Music'

Date: Wednesday, December 25, 18:00 - 19:30 JST

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

The Call for Applications for FY 2025 International Joint Research with Research Fund is open until January 20 (Mon), 2025, 12:00 noon (JST). Successful projects will receive research funds from the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Learn more about the application here.

• Guidelines
• Application Form