国際共同利用・共同研究拠点関連

i-JACのプロジェクト「滋賀県愛知川における伝統的河川管理情報のデータベース化」が協力した企画展示が開催されます。

日　時：2025年07月19日 ～ 2025年11月24日 　　　　
　　　　開館時間　9時30分～17時00分（入館は16時00分まで）

場　所：滋賀県立琵琶湖博物館　企画展示室

詳しくは　https://www.biwahaku.jp/event/2025/07/33.html

Greetings from the Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.

With the establishment of the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art and Culture (ARC-iJAC) in 2019, the Art Research Center strives to push the internationalization of research activities that transcend disciplines and geographic boundaries. NEWS Spring has arrived at Ritsumeikan University's Kinugasa Campus, where the grounds were for weeks beautifully adorned with cherry blossoms in full bloom. Database News! Over 570 Illustrated Books from the Royal Museums of Art and History (MRAH) Collection, Belgium, have been released The release of over 570 illustrated books, ukiyo-e painting manuals, and other early modern Japanese books marks the latest milestone in the collaboration between the Royal Museums of Art and History (MRAH) and the ARC, which began in 2007. Furthermore, 8,750 ukiyo-e prints previously released are also available through the ARC Japanese Prints (Ukiyo-e) and Paintings Portal Database. >> Read more. MRAH Collection of Illustrated Books: https://www.dh-jac.net/db1/books/search_belgium.php MRAH Collection of Ukiyo-e Prints: https://www.dh-jac.net/db/nishikie/search_belgium.php YOU ARE WARMLY INVITED! To mark Ritsumeikan University's 125th anniversary, the KINUGASA ART VILLAGE FESTIVAL will be held on June 1, at Kinugasa Campus. The ARC will present a Public Exhibition of the William Sturgis Bigelow Shuten-dōji Picture Scrolls, alongside a Conversation between Dr. Shugo Asano (Director, Abeno Harukas Art Museum) and Prof. Ryo Akama on 'Ukiyo-e and its Global Reach.'  >> Read more. Start of Digital-Archiving the Japanese Collection of the Museum Five Continents, Munich In February, Prof. Ryo Akama and his students launched a digital-archiving project of Japanese woodblock prints from the collection of the Museum Five Continents (Museum Fünf Kontinente) in Munich, Germany's first ethnological museum, founded in 1862. Special thanks to Dr. Uta Werlich (Director of the Museum), Prof. Hans B. Thomsen and Dr. Klaus J. Friese for their generous support. An Interview with Dr. Travis Seifman (Associate Research Professor, Kinugasa Research Organization/ARC Research Manager) Dr. Seifman reflects on his role as Research Manager at the ARC, his research on Ryukyuan embassies, as well as the impact of the Center's digital archives and global research collaborations.  >> Read more. New! ART RESEARCH vol. 25-3 is available  ARC Senior Research Fellow Prof. Koichi Hosoi Receives the Kyoto City Art Promotion Award (京都市芸術振興賞) Congratulations to Prof. Koichi Hosoi on receiving this award for his contributions to the arts and talent development in Kyoto. Prof. Hosoi has held key roles at Ritsumeikan University, including Director of the Art Research Center and the Kinugasa Research Organization. >> Read more. Database News! Full-Scale Operation of the ARC Japanese Old Maps Portal Database (ARC古地図ポータルデータベース） The ARC Japanese Old Maps Portal Database offers access to over 5,000 historical maps, including materials from the ARC and major holdings from other institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley. As part of the latest update, 311 Japanese old maps from the British Library have been added, alongside the introduction pyramid (tiled) display function based on the IIIF standard, allowing for smoother and more detailed map viewing. >> Read more. ARC Japanese Old Maps Portal Database: https://www.dh-jac.net/db/maps/search_portal.php Database of Japanese Old Maps in the British Library Collection https://www.dh-jac.net/db/maps/search_BL.php Upcoming Events May 21 (Wed), 2025, 18:30-20:00 JST 147. International ARC Seminar Speaker: Dr. Charlotte HORLYCK (Reader in the History of Korean Art/Head of School of Arts, SOAS University of London) Topic: 'Mining the Archive for Collecting Histories of Korean Art' (held in English) → YouTube livestream available May 28 (Wed), 2025, 18:30-20:00 JST 148. International ARC Seminar 1. Speaker: Dr. Koichi HOSOI (Professor, Department of Social Informatics, ZEN University/Senior Research Fellow, Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University) 2. Speaker: Yuji MIYATA (Lecturer, History of Content Industry Archives Research Center/ Visiting Researcher, Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University)  Topic: 'Archiving the History of the Content Industry: Initiatives and Challenges of ZEN University' → YouTube livestream available June 1 (Sun), 2025, 10:00-17:00 JST KINUGASA ART VILLAGE FESTIVAL Kinugasa Campus, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto Public Exhibition William Sturgis Bigelow Shuten-dōji Picture Scrolls Venue: Art Research Center (ARC) A Conversation on 「浮世絵の国際性」('Ukiyo-e and its Global Reach') Dr. Shugo Asano (Director, Abeno Harukas Art Museum/Director, Yamato Bunkakan Museum) & Prof. Ryo Akama (Director, Art Research Center/College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University) Free entrance.  → Read more. June 11 (Wed), 2025, 18:30-20:00 JST 149. International ARC Seminar Speaker: Osamu YOSHIDA (President, Tsukiji Sugoroku Museum) Topic: 'Playing the Sugoroku of the Forest of Knowledge: Fun, Database, and History' → YouTube livestream available Previous issues: Winter 2024, Autumn 2024, Summer 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2023, Autumn 2023, Summer 2023, Spring 2023, Winter 2022, Autumn 2022, Summer 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2021, Autumn 2021, Summer 2021, Spring 2021, Winter 2020, Autumn 2020, Summer 2020, Spring 2020 view this email in your browser Copyright © 2024 Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 56-1 Toji-in Kitamachi, Kita-ku, Kyoto 603-8577 JAPAN Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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)

2025年3月22日（土）に、第14回「知識・芸術・文化情報学研究会」を開催いたします。

下記の通り第14回の研究集会の→参加者申し込みを受け付けておりますので、奮ってご参加ください。 またこの会は、ARC-iJACの若手研究者カンファレンスとして位置付けられています。

「知識・芸術・文化情報学研究会」について
　昨今のデジタル・情報環境の急速な進展とともに、学術分野にも「情報」や「デジタル」を意識した分野横断型の研究が多く見受けられるようになってきました。大学の教育・研究活動においても、この傾向は強まっており、これに関連する教育プログラムやコースの活動が充実しています。
　時代に即した新しい研究テーマのもと、このような課程で学ぶ学部生・大学院生や若手研究者が学術的な交流をする機会へのニーズはますます大きくなっています。
　そのため、芸術・文化、およびその他の関連する分野の情報・知識研究に興味のある大学院生および若手研究者を主に意識し、発表・交流のための場として「知識・芸術・文化情報学研究会」を2011年度に発足させ、これまで13回の研究集会を開催しました。
　本会は、異分野の人的交流を通じて、参加者相互が新たな研究テーマや方法を発見できる場と位置づけており、学会発表とはひと味違う萌芽的・冒険的な発表も歓迎します。

■ 日時：2025年3月22日（土）　12:30開始

■ 実施方法：ハイブリッド開催

■ 会場：立命館いばらきフューチャープラザ カンファレンスホール（立命館大学 大阪いばらきキャンパス内）
〒567-8570 大阪府茨木市岩倉町2-150 (https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/futureplaza/conferencehall/)

■ オンライン：Zoom使用

■ プログラム・発表要旨は→こちらです。

■ 2025年3月19日（水）までに、参加申し込みフォーム https://forms.gle/FrhobaK3SYL34zQa6 よりお申し込みください。

※参加費は無料です。
※研究発表会後に懇親会を予定しています（対面のみ）。大学や分野の枠を超えた交流の場にしたいと思いますので、あわせてご参加ください。会場、参加費等は決まり次第ご案内します。

■問い合わせ：kacimeeting+2025■gmail.com （■を@に変えて下さい）

主催：知識・芸術・文化情報学研究会
世話役〔五十音順〕：赤間亮（立命館大学）、阪田真己子（同志社大学）、田窪直規（近畿大学）、村川猛彦（和歌山大学）、山西良典（関西大学）
共催：情報知識学会関西部会、アート・ドキュメンテーション学会関西地区部会
協力：立命館大学アート・リサーチセンター 文部科学省 国際共同利用・共同研究拠点「日本文化資源デジタル・アーカイブ国際共同研究拠点」

JSIK 情報知識学会

立命館大学アート・リサーチセンター（ARC）は、このたび「ARC古地図ポータルデータベース」の本格稼働を開始いたしました。本データベースには、ARCが所蔵する貴重な古地図に加え、カリフォルニア大学バークレー校（UC Berkeley）をはじめとする大規模なコレクションを含め、総点数5,000枚以上の古地図が収録されています。

今回、大英図書館（The British Library）所蔵の日本の古地図311点を本データベースに登載するにあたり、IIIF仕様のピラミッド型（タイル型）表示機能を追加いたしました。これにより、古地図をより柔軟かつ快適に閲覧することが可能となりました。

ARC古地図ポータルデータベース
https://www.dh-jac.net/db/maps/search_portal.php

大英図書館　日本の古地図データベース
https://www.dh-jac.net/db/maps/search_BL.php

今後は、すでに登載されている古地図も、ピラミッド型表示ができるようにしていくとともに、さらに多くのコレクションを加え、データベースの規模を拡大してまいります。

さらに、本データベースの活用を広げるため、ジャパンサーチなどへの掲載も積極的に進めてまいります。最初に、2025年3月末を目途に大英図書館所蔵の日本の古地図をジャパンサーチに登録する予定です。

この公開により、さらなる研究の発展が期待されます。是非ご活用ください。

日時：2024年2月21日（金）10：00～16：50、2月22日（土）10：00～17：00（予定）
会場：ハイブリッド開催　ARC＋オンライン（ZOOM） （YouTube ライブ配信あり★）

主催：立命館大学アート・リサーチセンター、文部科学省　国際共同利用・共同研究拠点「日本文化資源デジタル・アーカイブ国際共同研究拠点」、日本文化デジタル・ヒューマニティーズ拠点「研究拠点形成支援プログラム」

プログラムはこちらです。

日時：2024年2月21日（金）10：00～16：50、2月22日（土）10：00～17：00（予定）
会場：ハイブリッド開催　ARC＋オンライン（ZOOM） （YouTube ライブ配信あり★）

主催：立命館大学アート・リサーチセンター、文部科学省　国際共同利用・共同研究拠点「日本文化資源デジタル・アーカイブ国際共同研究拠点」、日本文化デジタル・ヒューマニティーズ拠点「研究拠点形成支援プログラム」

プログラムはこちらです。

2月19日（水）午後6時～8時（日本標準時間）、Web配信にて、国際ＡＲＣセミナー特別編「大英図書館地図コレクションを含むARCの日本古地図オンラインの公開」を開催いたします。

テーマ：「大英図書館地図コレクションを含むARCの日本古地図オンラインの公開」

2000年代以降、歴史地理学と地理情報科学を融合した歴史GISは、デジタル・ヒューマニティーズの一環として、日本国内および世界的に急速に発展している。しかし、日本における近現代の地図や台帳などの地理空間データの多くは、電子化されておらずGIS形式では利用できない状態にある。歴史GISを発展させるためには、紙ベースの地理空間データをデジタル化し、GIS形式に変換して一般に公開することが不可欠である。さらに、博物館の学芸員や教育者などGISの専門家ではない人々にも利用してもらうためには、オンライン検索やGIS分析のための使いやすいフレームワークが必要である。

本セミナーでは、1）日本の古地図のプラットフォームとなる「ARC Map Portal Database」、2）「Map Warper」の日本語版、3）「日本古地図オンライン」の開発を紹介する。これらのコンポーネントにより、ユーザーは古地図を検索・選択し、ジオレファレンスされた地図を共有し、さまざまなトピックに関する詳細な地図を作成することができる。

ARC Map Portal Databaseを作成するために、国内外の機関が所蔵する古地図をデジタル化し、一般公開し、ジャパンサーチに公開する。地図は検索を容易にするために、日本語と英語のバイリンガル・メタデータで標準化される。日本のMap Warperでは、非営利目的で地図を利用できるようにし、クラウドソーシングによるジオリファレンスを導入して地図の精度を高める。

今回は世界最大規模の地図コレクションを有する大英図書館が所蔵する400近い日本の古地図をデジタル化し公開したことを報告し、その内容について、Oxford大学のXia-Kang Ziyi博士からお話をいただく。

プログラムは下記となります。

司会：Dr. Travis Seifman（立命館大学衣笠総合研究機構・准教授／現ARCリサーチマネージャー）

講演者：

18:00-18:45
Dr. Xia-Kang Ziyi（オックスフォード大学アジア・中東学部）
「大英図書館所蔵の日本地図：過去と現在」

18:45-19:15
矢野桂司教授（立命館大学文学部地理学教室・ARC副センター長 ）
「日本古地図のオンライン構築」

19:15-20:00 質疑応答・デモ

略歴

シャ・カン・ツィイ博士（オックスフォード大学アジア・中東研究学部）
シャ・カン・ツィイ博士は最近、オックスフォード大学で東洋学の博士号を取得した。彼女の論文は、徳川日本と朝鮮半島間の関係における対馬藩の役割について考察している。彼女は、近世東アジアにおける外交や異文化交流、および徳川幕府の政治権力に関心を持っている。2023年初頭、彼女は、大英図書館古地図部門のマップキュレータであるトム・ハーパー氏と共同で、博士論文のプロジェクト「大英図書館所蔵の1900年以前の日本製地図」に取り組んだ。現在はオックスフォード大学で教鞭をとっている。

矢野桂司教授（立命館大学文学部地理学専攻およびアート・リサーチ）
矢野桂司（理学士、理学修士、博士（理学））は、2002年4月より立命館大学（京都）の人文地理学・地理情報科学の教授を務めている。1992年に立命館大学に入職する前は、東京都立大学で地理学助手として勤務し、博士号を取得した。専門分野は、日本学術会議会員（https://www.scj.go.jp/en/index.html）、人文地理学会会長（http://hgsj.org/english/）、日本地理学会理事（https://www.ajg.or.jp/en/）、 また、GIS学会の元会長（https://www.gisa-japan.org/english/index.html）でもある。研究関心は、地理情報システム（GIS）の利用と都市分析における定量的手法に集約される。これには、GIS内での情報統合、ジオデモグラフィックス、ジオデザイン、空間相互作用モデル、都市モデリング、仮想都市、デジタル人文学、定量的地理学の歴史、GISの歴史などが含まれる。

日時：2025年2月19日（水）午後6時～8時（日本標準時間）

参加：Zoom配信（関係者のみ・予約不要）

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Background:
Akiko Yano studied in Japan for a BA in international relations at Tsuda College, and for a MA and PhD in Japanese art history at Keio University. She specialises in Japanese painting history. She had an opportunity to study in the UK for one year as a visiting PhD student, based at SOAS University of London, thanks to a scholarship provided by the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC). She continued working in the UK, first as a Research Assistant for the SOAS-British Museum (BM) project on Osaka actor prints 'Kabuki Heroes on the Osaka Stage: 1780-1830' (2005), and then as a Research Fellow for the SOAS-BM project on shunga 'Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art' (2013). After joining the BM as a curator in 2015, she has been responsible, with two other colleague curators, for the Japanese collection, which holds over 40,000 objects.

Dr. Yano, thank you very much for your time today. What initially sparked your interest in Japanese art history?

Yano: I was interested in art (mainly painting) and history as a teenager, but I was not particularly looking at the discipline of art history for my BA as I was more interested in international relations through cultural communication. Thinking about my future career, however, I realised that I would feel more of a sense of mission if I could work on the preservation of the cultural heritage of Japan, and hence learnt, belatedly, about a job called a 'curator'. From that point onwards, I switched my specialty to art history with an emphasis on Japanese art history since I was in Japan and thought Japanese art would be easily accessible.

How did your connection with the Art Research Center (ARC) begin?

Yano: I learnt about the ARC's digitisation projects when I was in London as a visiting PhD student at SOAS. Prof. Akama was also based at SOAS on a sabbatical at about the same time. He was then digitising actor prints in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, and I was fortunate enough to have a chance to help with his photography sessions once or twice. It was a revelation. For an art history student in the early 2000s, photographs (using film!) of objects served primarily as my personal records to assist my memory of what I saw in the actual objects. The idea of systematic and end-to-end digital photography of a collection, which would exist online as a digital entity of that collection, available to the widest possible users, impressed me. When I was working as a Research Assistant for the Osaka actor prints project at SOAS, I actively used the ukiyo-e database, which Prof. Akama had created at the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum at Waseda University as well as at the ARC. He collaborated with the Osaka project by digitising a large-scale private collection of Osaka actor prints in Germany.

Yano: It has been a long-time ambition within the Japanese curatorial team at the British Museum to make use of the remarkable collection of paintings, prints, and illustrated books from Kyoto and Osaka in the collection, which has been acquired by the Museum over many years since the late 19^th century. The major exhibitions at the BM featuring Kyoto and Osaka artists in the past were 'Japanese Paintings & Prints: The Maruyama/Shijō School' (1976) and 'The Schools of Ganku and Bunchō' (1977) both by the then curator Lawrence Smith, and, more recently, 'Images of Kyoto & Osaka' (1997) by Tim Clark. It has been over a quarter of a century since the last exhibition, and the curators kept/keep acquiring Kamigata materials.

The most direct incentive for me to form the research project was the large-scale acquisition of the Scott Johnson collection of Kamigata surimono (so-called Shijō surimono), consisting of over 1600 items (if we count each sheet of surimono pasted in albums and accompanying surimono wrappers, it comes to be more than 2000) in 2021. It was our predecessor Tim Clark's final major acquisition as a BM curator. Significant in terms of scale and quality, this acquisition hugely enhanced our Kyoto-Osaka collection.

The more I looked into each of the surimono, the clearer it became that artists in Kyoto and Osaka were deeply involved in the world of haikai and kyōka. Not only that, but there are also thousands of individuals in surimono who contributed poems and pictures, who appear under their pen names and are unknown today. Who were they? How did they get involved in these surimono? What was going on, culturally, in late Edo period Japan?

I first encountered Kamigata surimono and the idea of 'salon' in the Osaka actor prints project, led by Prof. Andrew Gerstle of SOAS. The BM Japanese collection curators had been receiving generous advice from the late Prof. Nakatani Nobuo (Kansai University) about our Kyoto-Osaka painting collection. At the same time, Prof. Akama was spearheading the digitisation of the BM Japanese collection and built a system of databases at the ARC. All these threads of ideas, personal connections, academic activities, and advice converged into one as a research project. It is based on long-term working relationships among scholars in the UK and Japan, which has enabled us to embark on this 'salons' project to investigate a wide range of cultural participation of people of the late Edo period, centering in and around Kyoto and Osaka. Our scope at this stage includes any cultural activities that formed a communal space (real or virtual) for those who were interested in joining for pleasure, self-improvement, or whatever the reason, as long as there is evidence available in primary materials. In our project we call such a space a 'salon'. Primary materials are being digitised by the ARC team, and the project members are inputting relevant information - mainly about the persons involved - into the database. Our project is in a field where more traditional humanities study methods and digital technologies meet. Calling it 'digital humanities' might be easier, but our project is keeping an interesting balance between 'humanities' and 'digital.' Both benefit from each other to deepen our knowledge of the phenomenon of Japanese 'salons.'

While Edo (Tokyo) has been more comprehensively studied, the cultural history of the Kamigata region (Osaka and Kyoto) has remained relatively niche, at least in English. Did this influence your motivation to initiate this research project?

Yano: The situation is similar in Japanese as well. It was not really the original motivation to leverage the Kamigata profile, but it was and still is true that there was so much artistic material produced in the Kyoto-Osaka region that has as yet remained significantly underexplored.

The research outcomes of this collaborative project are currently being showcased in a one-year Special Display at the British Museum. Could you tell us about the unique appeal and key features of this Special Display?

Yano: The ongoing special display in the Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries at the British Museum (until 30^th March 2025) is one of the outcomes of the project. However, an academic research project and a public display each expect quite different audiences. For the general audience outside Japan who visit the British Museum, we need to start by explaining where Kyoto and Osaka are geographically, how vertically written Japanese text would be read, and so on. In addition, as the display is in the permanent collection gallery, the physical aspects of the space, such as the size and layout of the display cases, are fixed. We adopted a narrative so it would fit the objects nicely into the existing space, which sometimes posed a curatorial challenge. We also published a book to accompany the display, Salon Culture in Japan: Making Art, 1750-1900 (British Museum Press, 2024).

The display showcases in the first room representations of vibrant city life in Kyoto and Osaka, and the artistic currents of the late 18^th to the 19^th centuries mainly through paintings and illustrated books. Major Maruyama-Shijō school and other Kamigata artists' works are on display as well as some collaborative works (gassaku) among them. In the second room, the focus shifts to people's various hobby activities and cultural interests. The concept of 'salons' is introduced here as we feature group activities, such as haikai groups with surimono, sencha (infused tea) gatherings, and anthologies of poems and pictures by multiple authors. All the objects on display are from the British Museum's collection. Visitors are pleasantly surprised to learn about this rich section of our collection.

Given that part of this collaborative project was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, how did the ARC's database system and digital infrastructure support the implementation and realization of this project?

Yano: Covid-19 had a significant impact on our formation of the project. It was a time of no travelling nationally or internationally when we were planning the research grant application. It was a norm, previously, to travel between partner countries when conducting an international project.

The parallel aim of our project is to measure how it is possible to collaborate internationally without physically travelling. The ARC had already been a strong partner to the British Museum Japanese collection team. Building on that, as the core of our project, we set up an online database system, where digital images of relevant primary materials, text from transcriptions, and extracted person information can be accumulated, accessed, and searched for research by the project members from anywhere on earth. Each active member has assigned material to work on and input into the online database. Findings and work in progress can be shared in online meetings and workshops. The active use of online platforms for a meeting is a positive legacy from the era of Covid-19.

Do you have any personal favorites within the Japanese Collection at the British Museum that you would like to share?

Yano: I think that Banka jinmei roku (Who's Who from Myriad Houses, 1813, 1991,1112,0.75.1-5) is one of the key works for the project, and I am never bored by looking at each page. It is a who's who of haikai poets across Japan, complied by the Osaka poet and shipping agent Shime Chōsai (1757-1824). He called for applications from haiku poets in Japan's south and north, east and west, and put together more than 400 individuals' information. Each entry has a standardised format: a portrait of the poet, a haiku of their composition, their pen name, and a short biography. The entry order was, according to the hanrei (note at the beginning of the book), organised on a first-come-first-served basis, rather than based on skill or social status. This approach demonstrates the ethos of 'salon culture'. Based on the poets' biographies provided, we find courtiers, samurai, merchants, farmers, priests, scholars, artists, doctors, men and women, old and young, in one book. It is fascinating.

Is there anything else you would like to comment on or highlight?

Yano: The ARC has digitised almost all the prints and books (both out of copyright) in the British Museum Japanese collection under their international digital humanities scheme. Thanks to their work, an incredible number of images - hundreds of thousands - of prints and pages of books can be viewed through our Collection Online by anyone interested all over the world. This serves specialists and general users alike. The impact of this visual presence is massive; Japanese art objects can be viewed and appreciated, stimulating interest in Japanese culture more broadly. We are most grateful to the ARC, and hope to continue working with the ARC in the future.

Photo courtesy of the British Museum/Dr. Akiko Yano.

(This interview was conducted by Yinzi Emily Li)