Background:
Toshie Marra joined the C. V. Starr East Asian Library (EAL), University of California, Berkeley in 2012 as the Librarian for the Japanese Collection. Her areas of responsibilities include developing EAL's Japanese language collections and providing instruction and reference services for Japanese studies. Previously, she worked at the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for 22 years. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from UCLA with specialization in cataloging and preservation.

Thank you very much for your time today. What sparked your interest in becoming a librarian?

Marra: Marrying a scholar of Japanese literature brought me to UCLA in the late 1980s. At that time, UCLA East Asian Library had just begun cataloging Chinese, Japanese, and Korean materials in the OCLC CJK system. I was hired as their first copy-cataloger for Japanese materials. Soon I discovered a shortage of librarians in North America with expertise in the Japanese language, especially those knowledgeable about handling Japanese pre-modern books, or kotenseki. As a result, many unique holdings remained uncatalogued in library storages. This unfortunate situation motivated me to pursue a career as Japanese Studies librarian in the U. S.

UC Berkeley's C.V. Starr East Asian Library (EAL) boasts one of the world's largest collections of Japanese cultural resources. Could you tell us about the significance of your collection?

Marra: EAL's Japanese collection focuses on the humanities and social sciences. It includes a wide range of materials such as full-text electronic databases, books, periodicals, woodblock-printed maps and prints, and manuscripts. One of EAL's most noteworthy special collections from Japan is the Mitsui acquisition in 1950, which comprises over 100,000 items in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean languages. This includes the Gakken (Dohi Keizō), Motoori (Motoori Ōhira family), Sōshin (Mitsui Takatatsu), Sōken/Teihyōkaku (Mitsui Takakata), Imazeki (Imazaki Tenpō), and Asami (Asami Rintarō) collections, spanning from the pre-modern era to modern times. Other significant special collections include the Ho-Chiang collection, which contains over 110 Buddhist sutras in manuscript and print from the 8^th to the 19^th century, documenting the development of Buddhism in China, Japan, and Korea. Additionally, the Murakami Collection, acquired by the EAL in 1948, consists of approximately 9,100 volumes. This collection features many first editions of literary works from the Meiji through early Showa periods, some with illustrative kuchie frontispieces.

The research cooperation between the C.V. Starr East Asian Library (EAL) and the ARC in the field of digital archiving started in 2006 and has been ongoing for almost two decades. How did you first connect with the Art Research Center (ARC)?

Marra: In 2006 my predecessor Hisayuki Ishimatsu contacted Professor Ryo Akama of the ARC to digitize the Sugoroku collection, a part of the Mitsui acquisition, consisting of 155 sheets. After I joined UC Berkeley, the EAL Director, Peter X. Zhou, and I visited the ARC in December 2013 to discuss potential collaborations for creating more digital archives using EAL's Japanese special collections. Starting in the summer of 2014, the ARC began making regular visits to EAL to digitize our materials.

The ARC has digitized and created online databases of old and rare books, copperplate prints, sugoroku sheets, fine art auction catalogs and others in the Japanese Special Collections of the EAL. What is the significance of each of these collections?

Marra: Currently, the portal "Japanese Special Collections at the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley" contains five distinct databases:

1) Old and Rare Books: Includes printed books mostly from the Edo period (1603-1867) and manuscripts from the pre-modern to modern times

2) Copperplate Prints: Features over 2,400 images of individual prints from the copperplate prints collection, consisting of 472 physical items

3) Sugoroku Sheets: Contains 155 images, primarily from the Edo through the Meiji periods, with a few from the Taisho and early Showa periods

4) Fine Art Auction Catalogs: From the EAL's collection of approximately 800 volumes of art auction catalogs, mostly published between 1912 and 1941

5) Illustrations Surrounding Japanese Modern Books: From the Murakami Collection.

Among these, the first four databases are related to the Mitsui acquisition, though the "Old and Rare Books" database also includes a small number of Edo printed books from more recent donations, such as those collected by the late Prof. Ichiei Kishi and Dr. Frederic J. Kotas. This database also contains links to images converted from microfilm, provided by the National Institute of Japanese Literature through its Union Catalogue Database of Japanese Texts (Kokusho dētabēsu), allowing researchers to find digital images of the EAL's rare book holdings in a single database.

While the Copperplate Prints and Sugoroku Sheets databases are complete, the other digital archives are still growing as new materials are being digitized. The Copperplate Prints database resulted from the first digitization project that I sought assistance for from Prof. Akama, who tirelessly created metadata for each image after photographing them. The Illustrations Surrounding Japanese Modern Books database was designed by Dr. Kana Tsuneki, an ARC graduate currently teaching at the National Institute of Technology, Kurume College, and features kuchie frontispieces and other physical characteristics of bookmaking from the Meiji through early Showa periods.

Can you share your thoughts on how these digitized collections may facilitate research in Japanese art history, and provide an example or two of how researchers at UC Berkeley or elsewhere have utilized these digital archives, including the digital tools provided by the ARC, such as the Kuzushiji Transcription Support and Archiving System?

Marra: We owe a great deal to Prof. Akama and the ARC for enabling us to share EAL's digitized collections with researchers worldwide through the portal "Japanese Special Collections at the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley." However, the benefits of this portal extend beyond mere accessibility. It allows researchers to create their own databases for specific research purposes. Examples include the Copperplate Prints and the Illustrations Surrounding Japanese Modern Books databases. For the Copperplate Prints collection, EAL's online catalog provides a single collection-level record, whereas the Copperplate Prints database offers over 2,400 individual image records with corresponding metadata. This makes it easier for researchers to find specific images by searching the database, enabling them to create personalized research tools for analysis.

The portal also features the Kuzushiji Transcription Support and Archiving System, which allows researchers to attach transcription texts to associated images, facilitating full-text search. Several members of the UCB community and beyond have shown interest in using the portal for transcription. During the 16-month closure of EAL due to the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020 and July 2021, I began to collaborate with Prof. Shinji Konno of Seisen University. He wanted to use the digital images of EAL's Japanese rare book holdings for his online instruction. Even after in-person classes resumed, he continued using the portal for his teaching and provided transcribed texts prepared by his students. We acknowledge the contributions of Prof. Konno and his collaborators by creating the Seisen University Transcription Project page within the portal.

Can you share your thoughts on the importance of digitally archiving library collections and how it may play a part in the overall long-term goals of the EAL?

Marra: Digital archives have made it easier to access rare Japanese holdings in libraries worldwide and have opened up new avenues for research. With thousands of volumes of pre-modern Japanese books and manuscripts not yet digitized, EAL, along with many other libraries, should continue striving to make as many of these holdings digitally accessible to researchers globally. To this end, we have collaborated with many researchers from Japan in various ways.

Regarding the Japanese materials included in the Mitsui acquisition, I would like to clarify that some items remain uncatalogued due to a lack of expertise among EAL staff. This includes most of the Japanese Manuscripts Collection, which consists of approximately 7,800 volumes and 4,200 single sheets from the 14^th to the 20^th century. Thanks to the enormous efforts of Prof. Motoi Katsumata (Meisei University) and Prof. Akama, over 3,400 bibliographic records for items in this collection have recently been added to the Old and Rare Books database in the aforementioned portal. This will help numerous scholars worldwide discover what EAL has to offer, as these records contain titles and creator names in romanization, in addition to those in Japanese.

This achievement was the result of a multi-year research project led by Prof. Katsumata, with many collaborators, funded by the Mitsubishi Foundation, Meisei University, and JSPS's KAKENHI, in addition to ARC's support. Including these bibliographic records in this database will facilitate the process of adding images from this collection as they become available.

Finally, could you share a few of your personal favorites within the EAL collection?

Marra: One of my favorite items in the collection is the Kadenshū manuscripts, which consists of 146 volumes of kaden, or genealogical records of 135 kuge families from the mid-19^th century. Although these volumes are shelved at different locations in the Japanese Manuscripts Collection according to their family names, they were virtually compiled into a single collection, when digitized with funding support from the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources in 2018. After digitization, we enhanced the usability of the collection by creating a search tool for over 3,100 nobles' names listed in the manuscripts. This work was documented in the poster co-presented with Prof. Akama at the Jinmonkon conference in 2019. The Kadenshū collection is highlighted in the Online Exhibitions section of the aforementioned portal.

Other favorite items of mine include the manuscripts of literary works and essays by well-known modern writers, which seem to be holographs and allow readers to trace the authors' process of refining their texts. Examples include:

・Genkō monogatari, by Fukuchi Ōchi (1841-1906)

・Giwaku, by Chikamatsu Shūkō (1876-1944)

・Haha, by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927)

・Kabukigeki no hozon ni tsuite, by Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859-1935)

・Nara o tatsu mae, by Mushanokōji Saneatsu (1885-1976)

・Sōka ni tsuite, by Kōda Rohan (1867-1947)

・Yoakemae, Osanai Kaoru (1881-1928)

Is there anything else you would like to comment on or any other aspect you would like to address in this interview?

Marra: I would like to highlight that Prof. Akama and the ARC also helped digitize the Ukiyo-e prints collection held by the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. The images of these materials are accessible through a separate database, which is linked from the portal "Japanese Special Collections at the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley." I express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Akama and the ARC students for their support over the years. I look forward to working more closely with them in the coming years.

(This interview was conducted by Yinzi Emily Li)