2021 conference abstracts

This presentation aims to share our practice using papiers and Japanese’s techniques to conserve and to restore library book collections, their materiality. Japanese papers and techniques are now widely used as preservation practices and as archival material around the world. They help extend the life of library artifacts. These papers added to the original materials prolonging the life of these documents.

Beverley Art Gallery is based in the East Riding of Yorkshire, northern England. Its history is linked to Marcus Huish and British Japonism in the 19th century. As part of the official ‘Japan-UK Season of Culture 2020’, we planned an exhibition of Japanese arts to celebrate the Tokyo Olympics. The pandemic made this impossible – but instead of cancelling the exhibition, we developed an exciting way of reimagining ‘Reflections of Japan in East Yorkshire’ virtually.

This paper analyzes the extent to which students use open digital resources dedicated to the Japanese studies during the Japanese language learning and research activities and proposes an organized list of such resources.
When described in this paper, the digital resources are understood as an aggregate of software, information, technical, full-text electronic publications, including audio and video records, illustrations and catalogs of electronic libraries, recorded on the electronic storage media and/or posted on Internet websites, which are used for learning and research. No regulatory and teaching method materials are included.

In the year 2021 we celebrate 160 years of German-Japanese relations. On behalf of Prussia an expedition lead by the Count Friedrich zu Eulenburg arrived in Japan in September 1860. It took five months of negotiations until the so called “Treaty of Amity and Commerce” between Prussia and Japan was finally signed on 24th January 1861. Between the official meetings the members of the expedition had a considerable amount of free time that they spent with exploring Edo and its surroundings. In the official report about the expedition extended passages concerning shopping, book stores and Japanese reading habits are to be found.

This paper aims to present the case of the Special Course Kuzushi-ji Seminar at the University of Helsinki during the 2019–2020 academic period, and discusses its results, contributions and challenges. This course was conducted at the University of Helsinki’s Master Programme of Languages based on the Kuzushi-ji seminar offered by the Nagoya University in autumn 2019.

Place-names are necessary tools to specify a geographic position. As geographic information systems (GIS) have become popular in recent years, geocoding that links a place-name with its latitude and longitude is essential. In Japan, some research organizations and companies have provided geocoding services (e.g., Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo). Overseas, GeoNames is a remarkable service that provides information about place-names around the world. However, these services provide only contemporary place-names and are not applicable to place-names in historical documents. To solve this issue, we have constructed a historical gazetteer data of Japan.

The Historiographical Institute (HI) of the University of Tokyo has been collecting historical materials and creating a database of systematically organised material information and research results. It also aims to establish an infrastructure for data sharing on Japanese history to enhance the long-term preservation and utilisation of data archives. Currently, HI is also fostering information environments to promote the sharing and utilisation of humanities research data through the ‘Program for Constructing Data Infrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences’. In this study, we illustrate these approaches.

The Shibusawa Eiichi denki shiryo (Shibusawa Eiichi Biographical Materials) is a 68-volume (published 1955-1971) collection of materials from the life of Shibusawa Eiichi (1840-1931). Eiichi was a businessman and philanthropist, said to be the “father of the modern Japanese economy.” He was involved in roughly 500 enterprises and economic organizations as well as approximately 600 organizations for social welfare. Since its compilation, the Denki shiryo has acted as a dictionary of historical materials as well as a replacement for the primary materials that it contains.

デジタルヒューマニティーズと図書館の役割 : リソースをめぐるクロストーク

In this presentation, CDDP task force co-Chairs will present a behind-the-scenes view of the making of this series, how to use it for research and instruction, and what the CDDP’s next steps will be. These resources align with NCC’s mission to prepare a new generation of Japanese studies librarians, scholars, and information specialists to meet the growing challenges and rapidly changing technologies of the field. 

In this presentation I would like to attract your attention to materials housed in GARF (State Archive of Russian Federation). The archive was created in 1992. Japan related materials may be found in the following depositories: Soviet-Japan and Japan-Soviet Friendship Societies, Soviet Committee for Peace, Soviet Committee for Solidarity with Asian and African Countries and materials of International Conferences for Prohibition of Nuclear and Hydrogen Weapons. So far this archive materials were used by some Russian and American scholars for the study of Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries in the interwar period, but postwar materials have not been much used, though they contain some useful information on how Japan and the Soviet Union perceived each other.

In this presentation, CDDP task force co-Chairs will present a behind-the-scenes view of the making of this series, how to use it for research and instruction, and what the CDDP’s next steps will be. These resources align with NCC’s mission to prepare a new generation of Japanese studies librarians, scholars, and information specialists to meet the growing challenges and rapidly changing technologies of the field. 

The Historiographical Institute (HI) of the University of Tokyo has been collecting historical materials and creating a database of systematically organised material information and research results. It also aims to establish an infrastructure for data sharing on Japanese history to enhance the long-term preservation and utilisation of data archives. Currently, HI is also fostering information environments to promote the sharing and utilisation of humanities research data through the ‘Program for Constructing Data Infrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences’. In this study, we illustrate these approaches.

Japanese studies, which were conducted as part of the Chinese and Japanese departments during the Imperial Russia era, became independent and subdivided during the Soviet era. And it was promoted with a momentum far surpassing other Western countries. That momentum continued during World War II and even after the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration, with tremendous results. Against the backdrop of the tense relationship between Japan and the Soviet Union at that time, the demand for Japanese studies and Japanese language education increased and became increasingly popular.  

The Research and Development for Next-Generation Systems Office (R&D Office) at the National Diet Library, Japan (NDL) conducts research and development of practical applications for new library services using machine learning and other advanced information technologies as a means of improving the discoverability of digitized materials. One example of how the R&D Office’s efforts are being put to use is the Next Digital Library, an experimental search and view service for digitized materials.
The Next Digital Library features two search functions: a Keyword Fulltext Search of texts that are generated using optical character recognition (OCR) and an Illustration Search for finding illustrations, photographs, and maps that are extracted automatically from digitized material.

The presentation will discuss "Zoku Honchō ōjōden" ("Continuation of the biographies of Japanese reborn into the Pure Land“), composed in 1101-1111 by Ōe-no Masafusa as a sequel to “Nihon ōjō gokurakki” (“Japanese Accounts of Rebirth into the Pure Land”) by Yoshishige-no Yasutane. This text contains 42 biographies of people who were believed to attain rebirth in the Pure Land. Problems to be analysed include a view of the Pure Land practices presented in this texts; similarities and differences between "Zoku Honchō ōjōden" and "Nihon ōjō gokurakki"

This paper analyzes the extent to which students use open digital resources dedicated to the Japanese studies during the Japanese language learning and research activities and proposes an organized list of such resources.
When described in this paper, the digital resources are understood as an aggregate of software, information, technical, full-text electronic publications, including audio and video records, illustrations and catalogs of electronic libraries, recorded on the electronic storage media and/or posted on Internet websites, which are used for learning and research. No regulatory and teaching method materials are included.

The Historiographical Institute (HI) of the University of Tokyo has been collecting historical materials and creating a database of systematically organised material information and research results. It also aims to establish an infrastructure for data sharing on Japanese history to enhance the long-term preservation and utilisation of data archives. Currently, HI is also fostering information environments to promote the sharing and utilisation of humanities research data through the ‘Program for Constructing Data Infrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences’. In this study, we illustrate these approaches.

In the paper we investigate the set of maps by Daikokuya Kōdayū. The maps are studied in their historical context, but it will not be a new study of the history of Daikokuya Kōdayū and the Russian-Japanese relation in the end of the 18th century, illustrated by maps. Instead, we propose a systematic quantitative analysis of the set of maps. 

デジタルヒューマニティーズと図書館の役割 : リソースをめぐるクロストーク

Seiashō is a text of karon ("on poetry") genre written by a famous poet Ton'a (1289–1372). Now it attracts the attention of researchers primarily by poetic legends placed in the sixth part of the work. The text discusses various problems associated with waka poetry, and cites a large number of waka. 
In Edo period all major karon texts were published, but karon publications with illustrations are rare.

The Historiographical Institute (HI) of the University of Tokyo has been collecting historical materials and creating a database of systematically organised material information and research results. It also aims to establish an infrastructure for data sharing on Japanese history to enhance the long-term preservation and utilisation of data archives. Currently, HI is also fostering information environments to promote the sharing and utilisation of humanities research data through the ‘Program for Constructing Data Infrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences’. In this study, we illustrate these approaches.