Background:
Originally from New York, Travis Seifman completed MA degrees in Japanese Studies at SOAS University of London and in Art History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa before earning his PhD in History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before joining the ARC, he worked as a postdoctoral Project Researcher at the University of Tokyo Historiographical Institute, where he contributed to the production of an English-language translation of the Ishin Shiryō Kōyō Database. Travis Seifman specializes in Okinawan Studies, and researches in particular the embassies dispatched by the Okinawan kingdom of Lūchū (Ryūkyū) to Edo in the 17th to 19th centuries. Following the 2019 fire at Sui gusuku (Shuri castle), the former Luchuan royal palace, he began to explore the topic of restoration of the palace in the 1980s-90s and again today, and related issues of cultural heritage.

Dr. Seifman, thank you very much for your time today. What are some of the main responsibilities in your current role as a Research Manager at the ARC?

Seifman: My responsibilities are fairly wide-ranging. I help facilitate overseas research collaborations and networks, particularly with individuals and institutions in Europe and North America, acting as one of the main points of contact for our affiliated researchers overseas and working to recruit new research projects and partnerships.

I serve on the Center's Steering Committee as well as the Editorial Committee for the Center's journal, ART RESEARCH. Additionally, I coordinate the International ARC Seminar, our twice-monthly guest lecture series, and assist with a wide range of administrative duties, especially those involving English-language communications.

You first became connected with the ARC during your internship at the Smithsonian. Could you share more about that experience?

Seifman: In the summer of 2011, I spent about ten weeks as a digitization intern at the Freer-Sackler Galleries (now the National Museum of Asian Art), at the Smithsonian Institution, where I had the opportunity to experience the ARC's Digital Archiving Model firsthand. Along with two fellow interns, and under the guidance of Dr. Ryoko Matsuba, we photographed some 2,000 Japanese woodblock-printed and other illustrated books from the 17th to 20th centuries.

Handling and paging through these many volumes--far more than I had ever encountered before or since--gave me an invaluable, hands-on understanding and foundational knowledge of the many variations in paper, pigments, binding styles, book sizes and formats, genres of contents, and artistic styles represented in those books.

It was also through this internship that I first met Prof. Akama, Dr. Matsuba, and Dr. Ellis Tinios, learning a great deal from them about Edo-period books and publishing, and establishing personal and professional networks that have continued to this day.

From your perspective, what makes the ARC's approach to digital archiving unique or impactful in the global context?

Seifman: I think what makes the ARC's digital archives truly unique and impactful is their scale, comprehensiveness, and global accessibility.

First, the archives are extensive. With more than 880,000 prints and paintings, and more than 600,000 early Japanese books currently contained in the ARC's databases, researchers can perform large-scale comparative analyses in ways never before possible. Dr. Ellis Tinios' work on various developments in Japanese printing and publishing through exploring the numerous variations amongst editions or printings of books by a given author or artist, Shiori Totsuka's study of changes over time in prints by artists of the Katsukawa school, and Prof. Yumi Takenaka's work exploring the representation of domestic spaces in ukiyo-e across a large number of prints and books, are but a few examples of this.

Second, the databases are comprehensive. The ARC's approach emphasizes the digital archiving of entire collections whenever possible, rather than selectively targeting only those works considered, by whatever criteria, the most pertinent for art historical research. As a result, the databases encompass a great diversity of works relevant to a wide range of research themes--not only more traditional "Japanese art history" themes like Kabuki, landscapes, or poetry, but also urban history, history of mapping and geography, history of agriculture, medicine, fashion, ritual and ceremony, and so on.

Third, the databases include works from collections around the globe, providing access to a far wider range of materials than ever before. This has surely transformed how art history and cultural studies research can be conducted, and our conception of the field itself--enabling scholars to discover and compare works across institutions in disparate locations, without the need for international travel, or hunting down rare exhibit catalogs.

In my research on Hokusai's "Eight Views of Ryukyu" landscape series, I was fortunate to have easy online access to high-resolution digital images of both the full set of Hokusai's eight landscape prints and of every page of the Chinese volume Liúqiúguó zhìlüè (J: Ryūkyū-koku shiryaku), which he used as a basis for his images. Comparing the images side by side on my computer screen, and zooming in on details in each image allowed me to discover connections and differences I might have otherwise missed.

Further, a simple keyword search for "Ryukyu" or other keywords in the ARC databases revealed numerous related works from collections worldwide--including private collections--which I might never have known otherwise. One such example is a surimono (a woodblock print produced not for large-scale commercial sale but in a small print run for members of a given poetry circle) from 1833 depicting a pair of Ryukyuan (Okinawan) individuals, accompanied by poetry likely composed by a literary circle. One copy is owned by the British Museum. In my limited personal experience, I believe this is the first Ryukyu-related surimono I have encountered, and, while I still have much to learn about it, it provides an intriguing starting point, or further data point so to speak, for understanding how widespread interest in Ryukyu was among Japanese cultural elites, and the general public at that time.

Could you tell us what initially sparked your interest in Japanese studies--particularly Japanese art history?

Seifman: I entered college initially planning to major in the hard sciences, and I began taking Japanese language and history courses on the side because of a personal interest in anime, video games, and my imagined ideas of traditional Japanese culture. However, a semester abroad in Tokyo, which I thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, solidified my interest in pursuing Japanese Studies further.

My interest in art history specifically developed after I returned from that study abroad semester in Japan and took a few courses in Asian art history to complete a major in East Asian Studies. I was enthralled by the way images and objects can function as touchpoints, or windows, into a sense of a given time, place, or culture. It is a cliché to say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but images and objects can indeed provide a sense of the look, the feel, of a time and place in ways that words alone cannot. They allow us to travel the world, and travel through time, in a sense, engaging somewhat more directly with the visual and material culture-- the actual objects themselves--of different places and times.

Looking ahead, can you share some of the key plans and goals of the ARC for the new fiscal year?

Seifman: The Center's accreditation as the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC) has recently been renewed by the Ministry of Education for an additional six years, and we have completed the review and selection of our latest round of International Joint Research Projects with Research Funds. I am excited to welcome our new affiliated researchers--both online and in person--as their projects begin.

This year's projects include a survey of objects in European collections related to Gagaku, an ancient form of imperial court music; the digitization of photographs by pioneering female photographer Akahori Masuko; and research on Kabuki playwright Kawatake Mokuami, among others.

We are also continuing to expand our international digitization efforts, including new or expanded collaborations with the University of California, Berkeley (UCB); the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); the Five Continents Museum (Museum Fünf Kontinente) in Munich; the Museum of Decorative Arts (Musée des Arts Décoratifs) in Paris; and others, which will further diversify the materials in our databases and improve access to important global collections.

Further, we are actively preparing for the launch of a new faculty at Ritsumeikan University, tentatively named the School of Art and Design, set to open in 2026. Prof. Ryo Akama, Director of the ARC, will serve as the Dean of this new School.

We are also looking forward to a variety of events this summer celebrating the 125th anniversary of the establishment in 1900 of the Kyoto Law School, which was later renamed Ritsumeikan University.

Finally, could you tell us about your current research projects and what you find most rewarding or meaningful about working at the intersection of digital humanities and Japanese cultural heritage?

Seifman: I am currently in the early stages of revising my PhD dissertation, completed in 2019, into an academic monograph--the first in English to examine in detail the seventeen embassies dispatched by the Okinawan kingdom of Ryukyu to Edo, the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. The book aims to shed light on this under-discussed aspect of early modern Japanese foreign interactions while also contributing to the broader field of research on diplomatic and political rituals in the early modern world. Although my research methods are largely analog, the project has benefited immeasurably from the availability of digitized artworks and historical documents, as well as from digital tools that have aided me in deciphering kuzushiji paleography.

I am excited for the continued expansion of digital archives, making Japanese historical documents, artworks, and cultural resources held in collections around the globe not only more easily available but in many cases discoverable in the first place. When researchers can come across, and learn of a given item, whether in an online exhibition or database or otherwise, the possibilities for discoveries expand in ways we may not predict.

In particular, I am enthusiastic about advances in kuzushiji paleography deciphering tools, such as those integrated into the ARC system. These technologies make full-text searchable transcriptions--honkoku--more widely available, expanding the scope of research. While at the University of Tokyo, I photographed a number of documents detailing ceremonies in which envoys from the Ryukyu Kingdom were received in audience at Edo castle. I look forward to working with those texts in the ARC system, using the AI kuzushiji tools to help me with transcription and uncovering new information, such as the seating arrangements, the gifts exchanged, and other details which can provide new insights into how the rituals were structured, and to what political or cultural effect.

Our faculty members and other affiliated researchers here at the ARC have also been working on exciting projects using 3D modelling and other digital technologies to recreate historical spaces and even soundscapes virtually. Digital 3D models of the interiors of Nijō Castle in Kyoto--as created by Prof. Satoshi Tanaka--can be beneficial for visualizing, in three-dimensional space and full color, some sense of what those ceremonial meetings looked and felt like. Similarly, computer models of how the music and other sounds from parades and processions travel through space, and how they are experienced by paradegoers and participants, such as in research by Prof. Takanobu Nishiura, offer fascinating insights that can be applied to rituals like the Ryukyuan embassy processions I study.

I continue to be regularly amazed by how Digital Humanities is pushing the boundaries of what is possible in cultural and historical research. The fusion of arts/humanities and digital technologies offers seemingly endless new avenues for exploration and understanding.

(This interview was conducted by Yinzi Emily Li)