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.