This presentation introduces an archival project that focuses on the dispersed and largely underexplored materials of Frederick W. Gookin (1853–1936), a pioneering American scholar, curator, and promoter of Japanese art in the early 20th century.
This year, we will once again host a panel discussion featuring participants from both Japan and Europe. In previous panels, we have explored various topics related to Japanese sources and digital data. Building upon these discussions, the central theme for this year will be: "What constitutes data in Japanese Studies?"
In 2023, the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at UC Berkeley received a notable donation: an archival collection of approximately 26 cartons originally compiled by David. W. Conde (1906-1981). Conde was involved in Allied propaganda efforts during World War II, working in the U. S. Office of War Information’s Psychological Warfare Branch. From October 1945 to July 1946, he also served as Director of the Motion Picture Department within the Civil Information and Education (CIE) Section during the U. S.-led Allied occupation of Japan. This collection includes a wide range of materials: Conde’s manuscripts on Korea from the 1950s, film synopses and scripts, photographs of actors, posters and films submitted by Japanese film companies to the CIE for censorship, as well as propaganda leaflets, internal GHQ reports, and books and periodicals
The Library of Japanese Studies of the College de France has recently digitized its collection of Comte Hippolyte de Castillon de Saint-Victor (1830-1898), a French land owner who lived in the south-west of the country. I talk about this collector and his collection, composed of books (90 titles, 256 vol., many of which are old botanical or horticultural Japanese books) and of other documents (80 letters, 4 of which are from Japanese, and handwriting notes).
Currently, the NIJL is focusing on the project "Model Building in the Humanities through Data-Driven Problem Solving: Cultivating Next-Generation Humanities Research through Creation and Deployment of New Data Infrastructure (NIJL-DDH Project)," which started in 2024. This project aims to build a data infrastructure centered on Japanese literature by further expanding the collection of image data through cooperation with domestic and overseas institutions, converting image data into text data, and promoting the development of data analysis technologies.
Following on from last year's presentation, this session will introduce the latest developments at the National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU) and the National Museum of Japanese History, with a focus on emerging trends in Digital Humanities (DH) and Digital Archives (DA) in Japan.
A central topic will be the newly launched initiative, The Consortium Project for Digital Humanities of Japan, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), with NIHU serving as the core institution.
The Keio University Library has learned a lot from overseas initiatives in its history. Even now, the library complies with international standards in its cataloging rules and library systems. In terms of human resource development, we continuously send our librarians abroad as long-term stay trainees to some oversea libraries. In addition to the collection and preservation of unique materials, the library has also contributed to developments in Japanese studies through digitising classical books and other collections from the Edo period to the early Showa era and making them available to the public both in Japan and abroad.
This year, at the 35th EAJRS Conference, we aim to address another prevalent issue in the conservation of Japanese books: the fragility of the original sewing structures used in their bindings. As books are intended to be handled, read, preserved, and—more recently—digitized, their sewing often weakens over time, with threads deteriorating or breaking due to repeated use and manipulation.
In this presentation, we will explore how to best preserve the integrity of these bindings while maintaining the fundamental purpose of our collections: to ensure that these books remain accessible, readable, and capable of disseminating knowledge to future generations.
This presentation discusses the extracted records of official documents written in the “Imanaka Daigaku Diary” and manuals and analyzes the changes over time in the types of paper and formats of the document.
Anonymously, Satow sold his collection of Western books at Sotheby's on 24 June 1913. Therefore, publications of book auction records, such as "Book Auction Records", "Book Prices Current", etc. contained the information of his books only vaguely. However, we could identify them through those publications, using the names of auctioneers, the date of the auction and Sotheby's lot numbers. Also, we could trace or find them through catalogues of bookshops and libraries, online resources, etc. in some cases. Because of the progress of digitisation, we can even read some of former Satow's books on the internet.