Making a Search System from the List of Japanese Studies-Related Databases (2023)

Kamiya, Nobutake

Several years have passed since we started the project to create a database list of Japanese Studies-related databases together, and the number of items has gradually increased. However, it has become difficult to read the contents in the current list format alone, so we have created a system that extracts information from the list and puts it into a search system using MySQL, Flask and Docker, so that the contents of the list can be retrieved as soon as necessary. This presentation introduces that system.

Historical Documents Related to the Teaching and Learning of Early Modern Domains (2023)

Asai, Miyabi

In the 1970s, Ronald Dore's publications brought attention to the educational heritage of early modern Japan, both inside and outside of Japan. Education began with terakoya for elementary education followed by private schools (shijuku) and the domain schools (hankō), and it was during this period that Confucianism, as a foreign ideology, was widely incorporated into education. In response to the spread of education, Confucian scholars were recruited by each domain, and they also played a role in introducing learning and culture of Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka to regional cities.
At the 2013 Paris Conference, I introduced the historical materials of the Matano family, which was inherited by five generations of Confucian scholars in the Tatsuno domain in present-day Hyogo Prefecture. I would like to introduce the historical materials that could not be introduced at that time. I also would like to introduce the historical materials related to the Tottori and Okayama domains schools, as well as the preservation status of historical materials related to education in modern Shiga.

Hiroshima Domain Government documents in Edo period through Ryoshi examination (2023)

Ishikawa, Yoshie

This presentation proposes the role of Ryoshi (料紙, materiality of paper) in analyzing the historical documents in the Hiroshima Domain Government (HDG; Hiroshima-han) from the middle to late Edo period, demonstrated through the materials in the Hiroshima Prefectural Archives. During this era, samurai officers made official use of various papers of different size, folding patterns, colors, and thickness to honor the receiver’s status and expressing the importance of the communique. HDG’s law required samurai officers to use Iro-moroguchi (色諸口) paper and Iro-hanshi (色半紙) paper, which were dyed in pale pink, for all forms of official documents.
Incorporating the evidence from the samurai’s diaries, journals, and the scientific examination of paper materials, this presentation demonstrates that Ryoshi visualizes the four Cs in HDG: Class society, Community spirit, Credibility of official document, and Color-coded network.

Obei Bijutsu Angya, the Kuwabara Collection, Shimane University Library Digital Collections (2023)

Koyama, Noboru ; Satō, Yōko

Digital collections of rare resources are very important for the internet age, particularly from relatively remote libraries and museums as geographical obstacles to their access can be overcome through the internet. As one of the users who has enjoyed the convenience of these resources, Noboru Koyama would like to introduce "Obei Bijutsu Angya" ("The Pilgrimage of Art in Europe and America"), a book-form manuscript (12 volumes) written by Kuwabara Yojiro, a scholar of Japanese arts and crafts from Matsue City.
Yoko Sato would like to introduce the Kuwabara Collection and other important digital collections from Shimane University Library in Matsue City.

Recreating the Gillet Collection of Japanese Illustrated Books (2023)

Bianchi, Alessandro

This talk examines the provenance of a substantial body of Tokugawa-period printed books that were rebound in custom-made textile bindings, commonly referred to as 'Gillet' covers after the name of a former French collector. Building on a research paper delivered in occasion of the 2022 Symposium 'Arthur Tress and the Japanese Illustrated Book' (University of Pennsylvania), I shall look anew at illustrated books housed in major European and American institutions, in an attempt a recreating the now dispersed Gillet collection. Furthermore, in light of new evidence recently uncovered, I will discuss the identity of Mr Gillet, casting some light on his collecting activities.

Revisiting the three utaibon donated to the Bodleian Library in 1629 (2023)

Kornicki, Peter

At the EAJRS conference at Kaunas in 2018 I presented on the three Sagabon utaibon donated to the Bodleian Library in 1629. Among the unsolved questions was how they reached the hands of a country clergyman in England in the early seventeenth century. Since then I have been able to find the answer to this question, which involves a member of the East India Company who worked in Bantam (now Banten in Indonesia) and never reached Japan. I will reveal his name in Leuven and explain the long-distance connection between that clergyman and Japan!

Early European owners of Jesuit prints and manuscripts from Japan (2023)

Osterkamp, Sven

The provenance of Jesuit prints and manuscripts from Japan now kept in collections across Europe and beyond is still understudied. It is thus often not sufficiently clear, when and how they left their country of origin, who their first owners in Europe were and how they were transmitted afterwards. Relying on hints in the objects themselves, but chiefly on hitherto largely untapped sources such as book sale catalogues, this paper provides an overview of owners of such Jesuit sources in 17th to 19th century Europe

Blood, Tears and Samurai Love (2023)

Koch, Angelika

This talk aims to introduce a joint Leiden-Yale digital research project centred on a unique early eighteenth-century Japanese manuscript acquired by Yale’s Beinecke Rare Books Library in 2017 (working title: Shudō tsuya monogatari). Set in 1714 in northwestern Japan, the anonymous work describes a samurai same-sex love affair and its tragic consequences. As such, it provides a rare example of an early modern 'true-record-book' (jitsuroku-bon) – a book of rumours surrounding actual events and scandals, illicitly circulating in handwritten manuscript form – on the subject of male same-sex love.

The Present State of Use of Classical Texts Using Public Images (2023)

Hayami, Kaori ; Miyamoto, Yukiko

The NIJL has been aiming to make images of approximately 300,000 classical works available on the Kokusho DB since 2014 as part of the Historical Classics NW Project. The NIJL`s joint research project, “Development of ICT-based Educational Programs Based on Images of Classics” is attempting to use the Kokusho DB to develop educational materials for learning about classical knowledge and the local history and culture associated with it in a fun way.

Looking beyond the Union Catalogue Database of Japanese Texts (2023)

Komiyama, Fumi ; Yamamoto, Kazuaki

The National Institute of Japanese Literature (NIJL) has carried out the NIJL-NW project for 10 years in cooperation with various domestic and overseas institutions. As a result, it is expected that 300,000 pre-modern Japanese texts will be digitized and made available online. This project will shift to “the Model Building in the Humanities through Data-Driven Problem Solving Project” starting in 2024.
In line with this, we have integrated and reorganized the databases we have offered. Then, in March 2023, the "Union Catalogue Database of Japanese Texts" was released. In the future, we aim to further enrich the database by adding transcriptions and bibliographical introductions, standardizing metadata, and collaborating with domestic and foreign institutions.
In this presentation, we will introduce our current status and future strategies.

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