On February 20, 2024, a Digital Archiving Workshop was held by the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, and the College of Humanities, SOAS University of London, as part of the visit of Prof. Ryo Akama, Director of the ARC, to London.

The workshop comes after the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ritsumeikan University (RU), Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), and SOAS University of London in December 2023, which includes expanding the cooperation in joint research into the area of Digital Humanities (DH).

The Digital Archiving Workshop, attended by faculty members, library staff, and students of SOAS University of London, began with a general introduction to the ARC and its international research activities in Digital Humanities, followed by a case study examined by Dr. Ellis Tinios (Honorary Lecturer, University of Leeds & ARC Collaborative Researcher) on 'Transforming Research in Early Japanese Books through the ARC Research Space,' and a lecture by Prof. Akama on 'The ARC Research Space--Aiming at Perfecting a Comprehensive Digital Research Space for Japanese Arts & Culture.'

The workshop then moved on to a section focusing on practical techniques. Prof. Akama demonstrated and explained digitization methods for Japanese materials based on the woodblock prints and old Japanese books in the collection of the SOAS Library. Audience members were given the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience in digitizing these materials.

On February 21, 2024, Prof. Akama gave a public lecture organized by the SOAS Japan Research Centre (JRC) entitled 'The End of Actor Prints (役者絵): How did the Meiji Era's Actor Prints Disappear?'