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572 Illustrated Books from the Collection of the Royal Museums of Art and History of Belgium have been releasedJanuary 20, 2025(Mon)
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 are now available online, with images for each page:
https://www.dh-jac.net/db1/books/search_belgium.phpThese 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 Art Research Center has maintained a digital archive of the Museums' collection of ukiyo-e since 2007. Roughly 8,750 ukiyo-e works can be viewed in the ARC Japanese Prints (Ukiyo-e) and Paintings Portal Database.
Following the digitization of ukiyo-e prints, the project was then continued, in order to produce a digital archive of early modern books. However, the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the project, and publication online was delayed. The project was restarted in 2023, and 572 books, with images for each page, have now been released online.
The size of the images made publicly available in the ARC databases is limited. For those who wish to use larger images from these works, please inquire directly with the Image Studio at the Royal Museums of Art and History of Belgium.