ARC-iJAC Activities

Organized by the Center for Japanese Studies (CJS), University of California, Berkeley, and the Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University, a joint colloquium was held at the University of California, Berkeley, on September 17, 2025.

Date & Time: Wednesday, September 17, 2025, from 3:00 PM
Venue: East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley

Organizer: Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University; Center for Japanese Studies (CJS), University of California, Berkeley
Supported by: International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University

(This was a closed event.)

Program

The Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University, is pleased to share that the Shinsō Culture Digital Archive--adopted as an international joint research project by the ARC-iJAC in FY 2024 and FY 2025--has been featured on the blog of the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC).  

The Shinsō Culture Digital Archive investigates Japan's modern clothing culture through the concept of shinsō--the integration of body and clothing. Developed as part of the long-term Minpaku Costume Database Project (MCD), the archive is led by Dr. Haruko Takahashi (Visiting Researcher, National Museum of Ethnology) and realized through a cross-disciplinary collaboration that includes ARC faculty member Dr. Keiko Suzuki (Graduate School of Letters, Ritsumeikan University).  

Among its four databases, the NCC blog highlights two in particular: the Chronology of Japanese Clothing Culture in the Modern Age Database, which reconstructs everyday dress and perceptions of the body from the Meiji Restoration to the end of World War II using contemporaneous newspapers, magazines, and catalogs; and the Image Database of Japanese Clothing Culture in the Modern Age, which leverages detailed illustrations from serialized novels and other materials to provide rare visual insights into styles and appearances of the time.  

The ARC has supported the project by launching a dedicated portal site within the ARC Virtual Institute to enhance accessibility to these interdisciplinary resources both in Japan and internationally, aiming to broaden global engagement with Japan's clothing history and material culture. 

Learn more about the project in the NCC's blog post "Japanese Studies Spotlight: Decoding Clothing Culture with the Shinsō Digital Archive," co-authored by Dr. Haruko Takahashi and Dr. Keiko Suzuki.

Explore portal site of the Shinso Culture Digital Archive in the ARC Virtual Institute: https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/shinsou/

We are pleased to announce the 3rd Joint Colloquium co-hosted by the Center for Japanese Studies (CJS), University of California, Berkeley, and the Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University.

Date & Time: Wednesday, September 17, 2025, from 3:00 PM
Venue: East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley

Organizer: Art Research Center (ARC), Ritsumeikan University; Center for Japanese Studies (CJS), University of California, Berkeley
Supported by: International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC), Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University

(This is a closed event.)

Program

In addition to its world-renowned, extensive collection of ukiyo-e prints, the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in London also holds a significant, yet long-overlooked collection of Japanese illustrated books (ehon).

Originally part of the National Art Library before being moved to the V&A's Asia Department, this collection comprises more than 1,700 volumes across approximately 500 different titles, spanning the 17th to 20th centuries.

Until recently, the collection had only been partially catalogued, with no comprehensive resource available. An ongoing research and digitization collaboration between the V&A's Asia Department, the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC), and the Art Research Center (ARC) is addressing this gap.

The project involves digitizing the books, compiling catalogue entries, and producing bilingual records (Japanese and English) for the V&A's Explore the Collections database.

Learn more about the collection, the project's background, and its achievements in the V&A blog post "Revealing the V&A's Japanese Illustrated Book Collection" by Caroline Gill.
URL: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/revealing-the-vas-japanese-illustrated-book-collection

London, August 2025: Prof. Ryo Akama and his digital-archiving team with
Masami Yamada (Curator, Asia Department, Victoria & Albert Museum)

Background:
Hiroyuki Yamauchi is an Associate Professor at the Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, and a faculty member of the Art Research Center (ARC). He earned his master's degree in Letters from Nara University and went on to complete a PhD in Environmental Studies at the University of Tokyo.
His research focuses on the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and the metaverse to enhance geography education. By developing and evaluating educational materials through innovative technological approaches, he aims to make geography more accessible and engaging for learners.

Dr. Yamauchi, thank you very much for your time today. To begin, could you share what initially sparked your interest in geography?

Yamauchi: Geography is a discipline that explores a wide range of phenomena occurring in physical space, from the natural environment to human life. Geography is fascinating in that almost anything can be connected into it. What first attracted my interest was the relationships between regional history and the natural environment.

Your research focuses on the use of innovative IT tools--such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Virtual Reality (VR)--to develop and evaluate educational materials for geography classes. What inspired you to explore this intersection of technology and geography education?

Yamauchi: Over the past 30 years, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become widely adopted, leading to more diverse research methods in geography and applications of digital maps in society. Geographic information has become a fundamental technology for modern life, and its importance continues to grow. In fact, GIS is now part of the high school geography curriculum in Japan.

However, some high school geography teachers are still unsure how to use GIS and other digital tools effectively in the classroom. Technologies like GIS and Virtual Reality (VR) make it possible to simulate on-site exploration of local areas studied in the classroom.

Geography education has its roots in the academic discipline of geography, which values both a broad, map-based perspective and on-the-ground observation. Yet, in actual geography classrooms, students are sometimes simply taught to memorize technical terms. Some students also struggle with fundamental skills like reading maps and interpreting graphs.

For this reason, modern geography education should offer more immersive, intuitive learning experiences and teaching materials that lower the barriers to understanding. To achieve that, it is essential to leverage digital technology.

Could you share some specific examples from your research that illustrate how these technologies are being used to enrich geography education in the classroom?

Yamauchi: One example of using GIS in the classroom is a lesson that incorporates three-dimensional digital maps. For instance, when explaining alluvial fans, it can be difficult for students to grasp the slope of the terrain using a two-dimensional map, but this becomes much easier to understand when viewed in 3D.

GIS also allows users to switch between different types of maps, such as from topographic maps to aerial photographs, enabling students to observe patterns of land use more clearly. In this way, GIS provides a range of information that helps students gain an overview of regional characteristics. More advanced applications of GIS can also be used to analyze data such as population density, aging rates, and other information.

While GIS is excellent offering a bird's-eye view of a region, it presents information from a different perspective than what we typically see in daily life, which can make it difficult for students to grasp the actual scale of things. In such cases, immersive VR teaching materials experienced through head-mounted displays can be particularly effective. In my collaborative research with other scholars, we have conducted 3D measurements of various regional terrains and historical sites to develop VR-based educational materials.

One example is a project involving the Taya Cave (Taya-San-Yu-Ga-Dou) in Sakae Ward, Yokohama. This is a man-made cave used as a training site for Shingon Buddhism and its walls are adorned with a wide variety of Buddhist relief carvings. Based on the cave's 3D data, we developed a VR application that allows users to explore the cave's interior, offering them a highly immersive and satisfying experience.

Another case involves a virtual museum that recreates Saruo structures found along the Echi River basin in Shiga Prefecture. 

Saruo are traditional groynes built along riverbanks to redirect water flow during heavy rain and prevent flood damage. Over time, due to changes in the local residents' lifestyles, knowledge of these structures had faded from collective memory.

Our research team launched a project to rediscover existing Saruo remnants, preserve them through digital archiving, and raise awareness among local communities. As part of this effort, we created a virtual museum in a VR environment that exhibits information about Saruo. It is often difficult to get people interested in things they have never seen or places they have never been, but by using digital technologies, we can offer engaging and meaningful experiences.

In addition to your research, you lead the ARC's Technical Support Board. What are some of your main responsibilities in this role?

Yamauchi: At the Art Research Center (ARC), researchers from various fields in the humanities are engaged in joint research activities under the MEXT-accredited International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC). As my area of expertise is Geographic Information Science, I provide support to ARC-iJAC members by sharing knowledge related to digitized paper maps and geographic data.

Some cultural resources--such as paintings or photographs--depict actual landscapes. By managing these materials with geospatial data, they can be visualized as maps using GIS. I also offer guidance on handling three-dimensional data obtained through techniques such as photogrammetry.

How we archive spaces and spatially related cultural resources, and how we make use of them, is a matter of shared interest among many researchers. I believe this makes it an important area of contribution. On the other hand, using GIS comes with its own unique challenges. For researchers from other disciplines to use GIS effectively, they need both adequate technical support and opportunities to understand the value that GIS can offer.

Going forward, I believe it is essential to further strengthen these kinds of interdisciplinary support initiatives.

How does the Technical Support Board (TSB) contribute to the ARC's long-term vision, and what role do you see it playing in shaping the future direction of the Center?

Yamauchi: At the Art Research Center (ARC), we provide support for the use of GIS for ARC-iJAC researchers through the Technical Support Board. The ARC's Map Database features a wide range of Japan-related maps, including historical map collections from institutions like the British Library. We are also working on the provision of map data through the IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) platform.

Since the last fiscal year, we have begun offering access to accounts for the ArcGIS Online platform provided by Esri. This enables researchers affiliated with the Center to utilize applications commonly used by experts in geography at a low cost.

Looking ahead, how do you envision emerging IT technologies contributing to the future development of geography education?

Yamauchi: To advance geography education, I believe it is essential to introduce and consider IT technologies from two key perspectives: "educational materials" and "assessment systems."

In terms of the educational materials, it is important to apply various technologies to education in order to realize both "geography learning with satisfaction" and "clear, comprehensible teaching." While the use of GIS is one example, technologies such as AR, VR, the metaverse, and AI also have great potential to make geography education more engaging.

At the same time, we also need to think carefully about how learning is assessed. When both the teaching materials and the assessment systems are developed in tandem, and can provide feedback to each other, it becomes possible to achieve a more fulfilling educational experience.

For instance, if we create a metaverse-based digital space that reproduces the real-world locations found in geography textbooks, it would be possible to simulate something like a field trip within that space. In such an environment, teachers could give lessons as if they were on-site, explaining terrain and townscapes, while learners could explore the area freely as they study.

The ability to record data on how students learn and interact within that digital environment--combined with other sources of information--would allow educators to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methods, and to offer more targeted advice on how students should observe and interpret specific geographic features.

In this way, by expanding the learning environment beyond the physical classroom into immersive digital educational spaces, we can expect to improve education based on the data collected from those experiences.

(This interview was conducted by Yinzi Emily Li)

The Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University is pleased to announce that more than 6,400 nōsatsu and senshafuda votive images in the University of Oregon Library's Gertrude Bass Warner Collection of Japanese Votive Slips (nōsatsu) have been made available online.

The Nōsatsu & Senshafuda University of Oregon Database can be accessed here:
https://www.dh-jac.net/db/nishikie/search_oregon.php

The collection is also integrated into the ARC Nōsatsu Portal Database, here:
https://www.dh-jac.net/db/nishikie/search_Nosatsu.php.

The University of Oregon Libraries' collection is the largest collection of Japanese shrine and temple votive slips in North America. They range in date from the 1850s to the 1930s and feature images representing a wide range of themes, from seasonal celebrations and observances, historical and fictional figures, and scenes of everyday life to objects, buildings, and landscapes. Some depict pilgrims or members of nōsatsu collecting & exchange clubs (nōsatsu-kai).

Senshafuda and nōsatsu are believed to have originated in the 18^th century, as printed slips of text or images purchased by pilgrims and plastered onto walls or pillars at shrines and temples as a devotional act. They later became collectors' items, and by the end of the 19^th century were actively traded in nōsatsu-kai not dissimilar to surimono poetry prints circles which were also vibrantly active at the time. (For more on the latter, see the ARC Virtual Institute "Salons and Networks in Kyoto and Osaka": https://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/lib/vm/Salon/)

Most of the votive slips in the University of Oregon's collection today were originally acquired in the 1910s to 1920s by Frederick Starr (1858-1933), a professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago who reportedly became so active and prominent in nōsatsu-kai collecting & exchange clubs that he came to be known as "O-fuda Hakushi" (Dr. Votive Slips).

This digitization and database construction effort was initiated by Kevin McDowell, Japanese Studies Librarian at the University of Oregon, in 2015 and continued as an International Joint Research Project under the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC) in 2020. Though the project was placed temporarily on hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors, we are glad to now make this significant resource available to the public. We hope this database will support future research in art history, material culture, religious studies, and related fields.

For image use beyond personal research, please consult the Reproductions and Permissions policies and contact information for Special Collections at University of Oregon Libraries: https://library.uoregon.edu/find-materials/special-collections-and-university-archives/reproductions-and-permissions.

(Some information above is drawn from: https://oregondigital.org/collections/gb-warner-nosatsu, as well as from Kevin McDowell, "Echoes of Edo in the University of Oregon's Japanese Votive Slips Collection," presentation at European Association of Japanese Resource Specialists annual conference, 2024.)

On June 9, 2025, the Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University signed a Collaboration Agreement for Joint Academic Research with the History of Content Industry Archives Research Center (HARC) of ZEN University.

The signing ceremony took place at Ritsumeikan University's Kinugasa Campus and was attended by Professor Koichi Hosoi, Director of the HARC, and Professor Ryo Akama, Director of the ARC and faculty member of the College of Letters.

Through the conclusion of this collaboration agreement, the two institutions aim to establish a digital archive of oral history interview videos video oral histories and materials related to dōjin creative works in the field of media arts content, with the following objectives:

1. The collecting and archiving of oral history interview videos video oral histories of individuals active in the fields of media arts--particularly manga, anime, and games--as well as the IT and internet culture sectors. These materials will be organized and made publicly available through a digital archive, transforming them into valuable scholarly resources for the study of modern Japanese popular culture.

2. As a 'Real-Time History Project,' the initiative seeks to promote the scholarly use of primary materials related to Comic Market (Comiket), Japan's largest convention for dōjin creative works. Issues related to the digitization and use of catalog booklets from past events as research materials will be examined, while building a digital archive to preserve and safeguard these materials.   

About the HARC, ZEN University:

Established on September 30, 2023, the HARC is dedicated to the comprehensive and in-depth collection and preservation of primary materials related to people, objects, and events that have shaped the history of Japan's content industry. The HARC's mission is to make these archival materials available to the public for scholarly research, education, and the creation of new industries, contributing to their meaningful use in society.

On June 1, 2025, Ritsumeikan University's Kinugasa Campus hosted the KINUGASA ART VILLAGE FESTIVAL to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Ritsumeikan Academy. 

As part of the festival, the Art Research Center (ARC) held an art dialogue titled 'Ukiyo-e and its Global Reach,' featuring two renowned ukiyo-e experts: Dr. Shugo Asano and Prof. Ryo Akama.

Dr. Shugo Asano serves as the President of the International Ukiyo-e Society and is the Director of both the Abeno Harukas Art Museum in Osaka and The Museum Yamato Bunkakan in Nara.

Prof. Ryo Akama, of the College of Letters at Ritsumeikan University, is the Director of the ARC and a pioneer in the digital archiving of Japanese art held in overseas collections, having spearheaded the creation of the world's largest ukiyo-e online research database. 

Ukiyo-e, widely recognized through its presence on banknotes, passports, and popular TV dramas, also includes many lesser-known works that have remained 'hidden' within museum collections around the world. During their conversation, Dr. Asano and Prof. Akama highlighted the enduring appeal of ukiyo-e and discussed how masterpieces by artists such as Hokusai, Kunisada, and Kuniyoshi are exhibited not only in Japan but also in prestigious museums worldwide, including the British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Their insightful exchange offered attendees a unique opportunity to deepen their understanding of ukiyo-e's cultural significance and its far-reaching international influence. 

Looking ahead, with the establishment of the College of Arts and Design on Kinugasa Campus next year--where Prof. Akama will serve as dean--Ritsumeikan University is excited to host further events that celebrate and explore Japan's extensive artistic heritage in a global context.

On May 22, 2025, a group of students from Northeastern University visited the Art Research Center (ARC) as part of the university's study abroad program Dialogue: Shoshin Japan: Art, Craft, and Design in Kyoto. The group was led by Associate Teaching Professors Jamal Thorne and Kate Terrado of the College of Arts, Media, and Design (CAMD) at Northeastern University.

Besides touring the ARC's building and facilities, discussions and an exchange of ideas on collaboration in digital humanities took place with Dr. Travis Seifman (Associate Professor, Kinugasa Research Organization/ARC Research Manager).