abstract

The digital transformation of scholarship has brought access to a steadily increasing quantity of digitized Japanese resources for European Japanese Studies researchers – not the least thanks to the ardent activities and services of libraries both in Japan and Europe. What is more, digital humanities research methods are also gaining momentum in Japanese Studies. However, when it comes to institutional knowledge infrastructures at universities in Europe, it is still a shared experience that they can fall short in accommodating the required linguistic and geo-cultural diversity, especially regarding data and tools (software) in non-Latin scripts like Japanese.

This year we entered the fourth and final funding period as FID which will last until the end of 2027. Currently, the DFG is launching a follow-up programme under the name "FIDplus" that will allow FIDs to continue their activities, if they meet certain criteria. In this presentation I would like to give a summary of our services and achievements for the research community in Germany and Europe so far and outline future challenges and perspectives for the continuation of our work.

This keynote lecture explores the case of a “private library” in Kyoto during the 18th and 19th centuries, focusing on the book collection of Kamo no Suetaka, a Shinto priest of the Kamigamo Shrine. Drawing on specific historical materials, the lecture examines the formation, administration, and operation of his collection, known as the Kasendō Bunko.

This presentation offers a framework to explore automating various aspects of work in Japanese studies librarianship using AI tools such as ChatGPT and CoPilot. Progressively complex use cases will demonstrate immediate solutions requiring little to no technical expertise, and advance to more sophisticate solutions that highlight AI's limits in automation and problem solving.
The framework I propose is built on several interrelated pillars: verifiability; expedience; expertise, both in subject matter and technical prowess; and active vs. passive learning.

In a previous presentation I introduced my studio and how I work with damaged Japanese books. I showed different possibilities of treatments and materials that restorers use in the restoration and/or conservation of books. This time, I want to focus my research and my practices on a very specific problem. As is very often the case, we find holes made by insects in our collections of Japanese books. I will present a case study with 6 different possibilities (such as adding fibers manually, adding fibers by machine, by doubling, etc.). All these possibilities will be demonstrated, analyzed and discussed in terms of feasibility in relation to the conservation of books/collections.

The University of Oregon's Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) has a large and rare collection of Japanese votive slips (nōsatsu or senjafuda), consisting of over ninety albums with thousands of individual images. The slips, with the names and addresses of pilgrims printed on them, were originally used in early modern Japan to paste on shrines and temples as a way of earning religious merits. This ostensibly religious practice, however, was, almost from the start, mixed with aspects of play and, over time, an exchange element was added as nōsatsu aficionados began to commission artists, carvers and printers to produce elaborate, polychrome artworks solely for the purpose of exchanging and collecting at regular meetings and not for commercial uses. This collection is of unique cultural interest as it offers a glimpse into an art form that was exclusive to the networks of nōsatsu groups that engaged in pasting and exchanging slips in the late Edo, Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods (ca. 1850-1930).

The presentation will demonstrate through paper research that there are two types of hosho paper with different folding methods, sizes, and thicknesses, and will reveal that Roju-Hosho was issued less formal when Daimyo was in Edo. The presenter will report on examples of Roju-Hosho preserved in the Yamauchi family (山内家), the lord of the Tosa-Han (土佐藩), and the administrative documents of the Hiroshima-Han.

This presentation will introduce and discuss the challenges of preserving and utilizing Japanese local mingu materials and the efforts to open up and share information on them. Everyday objects, such as tableware, utensils, tools and equipment for livelihood, clothes, adornments, and furniture made and used through people's daily lives, are called "mingu" in Japanese folklore and museums. They are significant materials through which we can interpret the culture and changes of people's living in a certain time span or space. Therefore, mingu, especially those made and used before the drastic changes in people's lifestyle during the high economic growth after WW2, were collected throughout the country and preserved in each region to protect them from disappearance.

The latest trends and future prospects of NACSIS-CAT/ILL and the E-resources Data Sharing Services

The National Diet Library (NDL) has several services that provide patrons with digital data, including access via the Internet to materials whose copyright protection has expired and a Digitized Contents Transmission Service available both to Libraries and to Individuals. In addition, we are planning on allowing users to download digital materials in PDF format as part of our Remote Photoduplication Service.
The Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Libraries/Individuals is a service that allows digitized materials that are within the copyright protection period but are difficult to obtain due to being out of print or other reasons to be viewed or printed out at a library that has been approved by the NDL or at a personal terminal. In April 2024, it became possible for overseas libraries to apply for a usage category that allows printing out.
The Remote Photoduplication Service (PDF download) is a service that provides users with digital data (PDF files) of a portion of a copyrighted work created by scanning or other means. Although there are some exceptions, many of the materials in our collection are available for use. With the revised Copyright Act that came into effect in 2023, it became possible to provide patrons with digital copies via the internet, including by email.
This time, we will mainly introduce recent developments in the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Libraries/Individuals and the features of the Remote Photoduplication Service (PDF download) service.