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［イベント情報］April 2, 2025(Wed)
Prof. Koichi Hosoi, Senior Research Fellow at the Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University, has been awarded the prestigious Kyoto City Art Promotion Award (京都市芸術振興賞). The award ceremony took place on Thursday, March 27, 2025.The Kyoto City Art Promotion Award is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to advancing the arts in the city of Kyoto, particularly in areas such as nurturing new talent and improving the overall environment for art-related activities.
Prof. Hosoi's distinguished career spans a wide range of roles in academia and research. After completing his doctoral course at the Graduate School of Business Administration at Ritsumeikan University, he held several notable positions, including Professor in the College of Policy Science, Professor in the College of Image Arts and Sciences, Director of the Art Research Center, and Director of the Kinugasa Research Organization at Ritsumeikan University.
Currently, he is a Professor at ZEN University's Faculty of Social Informatics and serves as Director of the History of Content Industry Archives Research Center at the same university. Additionally, he is a councillor at the Consortium for Information Society in Kyoto.
Prof. Hosoi has focused his research on Japan's expressive cultural resources, ranging from ukiyo-e to video games. He views their long-term preservation and utilization as a societal process, and has worked to cultivate talent, institutions, and systems to better manage cultural resources.
One of his most notable contributions is the "Game Archive Project (GAP)," which has been a comprehensive preservation initiative since the late 1990s, conducted in collaboration with industry, academia, and the public sector. Through his work, including lectures and mentorship for future generations, Prof. Hosoi has made significant contributions as a leading figure in the field of game studies in Japan.
Related link: https://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/bunshi/cmsfiles/contents/0000338/338316/houdousiryou.pdf
On July 22, 2024, an article on Sakana AI's Ukiyo-e AI, which ARC had supported, was released and published in the Asahi Shimbun Digital.
［イベント情報］January 15, 2024(Mon)
Titled The Intangible Culture that Japan is proud of makes its World Debut, Ritsumeikan University's Research Report RADIANT Issue #20 introduces the digital archiving projects of Prof. Ryo Akama (College of Letters/Director of the ARC).
In particular, the report focuses on his research endeavors in digital archiving and preserving intangible Japanese cultural heritage, such as Japanese folk performing arts, for future generations.
On July 22, 2023, Professor Koichi Hosoi (College of Image Arts and Sciences, RU)--Deputy Director of the Art Research Center (ARC)--had a guest appearance on the TV program いけずな京都旅' (Ikezuna Kyoto Tabi) on the channels NHK BS Premium and BS4K.
The theme of the program was 千年メタバースの都 (Capital of a Thousand Years Metaverse).
As part of the program, Professor Shoichi Inoue--Director of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken)--and Takanori Nishikawa visited the Art Research Center (ARC) and experienced the metaverse.
［イベント情報］August 8, 2022(Mon)On August 8, 2022, the Tokyo Shimbun featured an article on the release of the pre-war programs of the Kabuki-za Theatre in the Shochiku Otani Library's Shibai Banzuke Browsing System (松竹大谷図書館所蔵・芝居番付検索閲覧システム).
As part of the FY 2022 ARC-iJAC project of the Shochiku Otani Library and based on an agreement between the library and the Art Research Center (ARC), the digitized programs have been integrated into the Shochiku Otani Library's Shibai Banzuke Browsing System (松竹大谷図書館所蔵・芝居番付検索閲覧システム), developed and made available to the public by the ARC.
Shochiku Otani Library <Shibai Banzuke Browsing System>
< https://www.dh-jac.net/db1/ban/search_shochiku.php?enter=shochiku&lang=en >On July 7, 2022, the Kyoto Shimbun featured an article on the Kyoto News Archive, a digital archiving project led by Professor Keiji Yano (College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University).
The Kyoto News Archive was released in the ARC Virtual Institute on June 24, 2022:
< ARC Virtual Institute: The Kyoto News Archive >［イベント情報］April 21, 2022(Thu)On April 16, 2022, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the research activities of Professor Ryo Akama, Director of the Art Research Center, to digitize valuable cultural resources.
［イベント情報］February 28, 2022(Mon)On February 28, 2022, the Asahi Shimbun featured an article on the joint research project led by Professor Masaaki Kidachi (College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University) on climbing kilns in Gojo-zaka, Kyoto.
On January 19, 2022, the Heian-kyo Site Database--a project led by Prof. Keiji Yano (Deputy Director of the Art Research Center)--was featured in the NHK program 'まちに残る"平安京"を探せ！'.
Read more about the Heian-kyo Site Database:
https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/e/news/pc/012622.htmlWatch the video on the NHK website:
https://www.nhk.or.jp/kyoto-blog/chiebukuro/On December 8, 2021, the Yomiuri Shimbun featured an article on the launch of the Heian-kyo Site Database--a project led by Prof. Keiji Yano, Deputy Director of the Art Research Center (ARC).
For more information on the database, please click here.
