Todd Hamish 2003
Sekai no Dejitaru Nara Ehon Detabesu− an International Digital Database of Nara Ehon
http://dbs.humi.keio.ac.jp/naraehon
Hamish Todd
The British Library
Sekai no Dejitaru Nara Ehon (Digital Database of Nara Ehon Around the World) is a free digital archive which aims to make available text and images of Nara Ehon (Nara Picture Books) and Nara Emaki (Nara Picture Scrolls) from collections around the world. There is considerable academic debate as to the origins and scope of the term Nara Ehon but in the context of this project it is taken to mean Otogiz_shi manuscripts which are accompanied by illustrations. Otogizoshi is a general term for a genre of short narratives that were popular from the Muromachi Period to the early Edo Period, written mostly by anonymous authors and covering a wide range of subjects from fairy tales to war epics, Shinto myths to Buddhist legends. Around 400 different stories survive in an estimated 4,000-5,000 copies worldwide.
The database is the brainchild of Keio University’s Humanities Media Interface (HUMI) Project which was set up in 1996 to conduct research into digital bibliography and the creation and management of digital material. The Project’s initial focus was early Western printing beginning with Johannes Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible of 1454-55. In addition to Keio’s own copy they digitised those held by Cambridge University, the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz and The British Library.
At the same time Keio was also digitising important Japanese material in its collections including a digital database Hiroshige’s Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido. This in turn led to the idea of a database of Nara Ehon. Work began in Febuary 2001 with the photography of Keio University’s own 50 Nara ehon and emaki and 12 works held in private collections in Japan. In February-March 2002 the HUMI Team visited The British Library and photographed 21 further items making a total of 83 works. The next stage will be the photography of Nara Ehon/Emaki from Kyoto University later this year and from the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin in February 2004.
The database currently contains complete digital images of each manuscript accompanied by a comprehensive bibliographical description and a summary of the story. The database can be searched by title, period, format,material, subject and keyword. There are Japanese and Englosh interfaces although the English version is still under development.
Suzuki Akihiro 2003
Services for remote users via the National Diet Library’s website
− Focusing on the Japanese Periodicals Index and the Digital Library from the Meiji Era ?|
Akihiro Suzuki
Assistant Director
Humanities Division
Reference and Special Collections Department
National Diet Library
The National Diet Library (NDL) provides library services both inside and outside of Japan through its website. The outline of the services is as follows:
- Online Catalogs: NDL-OPAC, Union Catalog of Newspapers in Japan, Books on Japan, etc.
- Collection of the Electronic Library: Original texts and images provided in digital form from the NDL’s holdings; Digital Library from the Meiji Era, Rare Books Image Database, etc.
- Diet and Parliaments: Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diet, etc.
- Subject Research Guide: Provides research tools and information on related institutions
- Others: Information on the Tokyo Main Library, the Kansai-kan and the International Library of Children’s Literature, and library services for users overseas
I am going to talk about the Japanese Periodicals Index in the NDL-OPAC − the primary tool for locating materials in the NDL − and the Digital Library from the Meiji Era that provides digital images of the texts of Japanese books printed in the Meiji era.
- Japanese Periodicals Index: About 5,770,000 articles can be searched. You can request photocopying on the search result screen via the Internet. (The copies are delivered by mail)
- Digital Library from the Meiji Era: All pages of the books printed in the Meiji era and held by the NDL can be viewed in digital form on the website. About 47 thousand books are now available, and the rest are to be added after digitization and copyright clearance.
Morimoto Hideyuki 2003
Uniqueness of Titles Acquired through the NCC MVS Programme:
Current Holdings Situation in North America of Programme-Funded Titles, 1992-2003 = L'unicite´ des oeuvres acquis par l'interme´diaire du Programme de collections en parts multiples du Conseil nord-ame´ricain pour la coordination de documentation dans les fonds japonais : la situation courante de possession en Ame´rique du nord des mate´riaux procure´s par le financement du Programme, de 1992 a` 2003
Hideyuki Morimoto
Abstract
Following various past efforts in cooperative collection development in North America, which unfortunately encountered stumbling blocks, such as the Farmington Plan, the PL 480 scheme, and the Conspectus programme, exclusively or inclusively targeting foreign publication output, the National Coordinating Committee on Japanese Library Resources and External User Services (NCC) was established in 1992. Since its inception, it (renamed in 2000 North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources, retaining its abbreviation NCC) has administered the Multi-Volume Set Programme (MVS) to address collection development difficulties associated with expensive multi-part Japanese titles. After approximately a decade of its operation, NCC decided in 2000 that this Programme should be evaluated; and assessment efforts were made by an evaluation committee created within NCC, with a committee final report submitted to NCC in February 2002.
This presentation is made as an extension to a report that formed a part of the evaluation endeavour that specifically examined the issue of the then current holdings situation of MVS-funded titles in North America to ascertain whether or not one of the major goals of the Programme, to concentrate on acquisition in North America of specialised multi-part Japanese titles not amenable to wide purchase, had actually been achieved. Additional titles have been acquired through MVS since then; and, independent of the Programme, the holdings situation of expensive multi-part Japanese titles at North American libraries has constantly been changing since the evaluation committee completed its assignment. With updated data reflecting such recent activities incorporated, the discussion will be made on the following topics in this regard in the order enumerated: (1) background and literature review; (2) research question; (3) methods; (4) findings; and (5) discussion.
Miyazawa Akira 2003
New services of NII (National Institute of Informatics)
MIYAZAWA Akira
National Institute of Informatics
This is to introduce latest news of NII (National Institute of Informatics). Its information services include widely used NACSIS-CAT cataloguing service. As NII reported in the last conference, this report covers mainly the last year, as well as the prospect of near future.
1) Result of the oversea monitor program
NII has conducted oversea monitor program 2002/2003. Ninety-three institutions and one hundred sixty-five personal users participated in this program. Sixty-four institutions and sixty-two personal users answered the questionnaire, and most of them hoped continuation of the monitor program. NII decided to continue the program to 2003/2004 fiscal year.
2) Genii
GeNii ( http://ge.nii.ac.jp ) is a new service of NII aiming at total portal site for scholarly information. It offers NACSIS-CAT union catalog and research articles information including full text when available. Webcat Plus's associative search offers a new way of searching books not only in the union catalogue, but in wider repertory of Japanese books. Book information and research article information will be expanded substantially in this year.
3) NACSIS-CAT
There are twenty European libraries using NACSIS-CAT. The old NACSIS-CAT system is going to shut down by the end of year 2004. European NACPC users can use new version of NACSIS-CAT available through NII, or can use WebUIP, which enables libraries to use NACSIS-CAT without any special program other than a web browser.
4) European area activities
There are twenty NACSIS-CAT user libraries in Europe, now. NII held NACSIS-CAT training course for two consecutive years in Germany, hosted by Japanese CultureInstitute, Cologne and Munich University. This year, a NACSIS-CAT training course for oversea users is going to be held in NII, conjunction with the training program held by Japan foundation and NDL in the December.
5) Organisation change
NII, as one of the inter university research institute, is going to be merged with some other institute as a part of "hojinka" or separation of national universities from the government. The merger will take place on the 1st of April, 2004, and with The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, National Institute of Genetics and National Institute of Polar Research, NII becomes a part of Information and Systems Research Organization (Joho-Sisutemu Kenkyu Kiko: English name is tentative).
Matsuda Kiyoshi 2003
'Shaben-kai' was a society of naturalists in Edo (ca.1825-1855) set up by MAEDA Toshiyasu, daimy_ of Toyama. Doctor P.A.L. Savatier, French surgeon in Yokosuka Arsenal of the Bakufu, returned to his country with very precious materials of 'Shaben-kai'. Among them I present some collected notes of members of the society in the possession of Guimet Museum at Paris and try to compare with similar notes in Japanese libraries. The activities of 'Shaben-kai' remained in a traditional keen interest in natural curiosities.
Lambert Bruce Henry 2003
Garnishing Resources, Developing Allies:
A Discussion Session on Funding & Support Strategies
led by Bruce Henry Lambert, with assistance from Dr. Sachie Noguchi, NCC Chair
Many are interested in information and expertise relating to Japan: national governments, private industry, scholars and others. Our research & information units often seek support from promotional organizations within Japan; these in turn must consider the efficiency of subsidies, and the domain of each individual organization. Do potential users know of available resources? What level of performance is expected in exchange for support?
Many EAJRS members, quite friendly and rather easy-going when we meet, are rather isolated specialists, struggling considerably with limited budgets and for incremental improvements without much collegial cooperation. In other cases, budgets are adequate, but cooperation between domestic organizations seems to infringe on organizational or professional domain, or is avoided as being outside the parameters of professional review (thus unrewarding). Some information professionals may question if the trouble to deal with outsiders is far more tedious than any benefits. But increased cooperation holds some promise for savings in time and costs. In our presently fragmented and somewhat politicized format, does Europe receive a fair share of funding? What of incentives for cooperation - do they exist, or should they be created?
We have a potential model for collaboration in the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC), which raises collaborative funds and conducts joint training seminars. NCC's Multi-Volume Sets Project provides support (often a 75% subsidy) for important but expensive resources not amongst North American holdings (in exchange, libraries pledge to permit free circulation of such materials). This session is highly fortunate in being able to draw upon the advice & assistance of Dr. Sachie Noguchi of the East Asian Library, University of Pittsburgh, and concurrently the Chair of the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC). Building upon Dr. Noguchi's presentation of NCC activities at the 13th EAJRS Conference last year in Paris, we will discuss possible forms of collaboration, what points we might emulate, and what we had best avoid. Please bring your suggestions and ideas.
Koyama Noboru 2003
The Guillemard Collection (Early Photographs of Japan) at Cambridge University Library
Noboru Koyama
Cambridge University Library
F. H. H. Guillemard (1852-1933), traveller, writer and naturalist, visited Japan twice, in 1882 (Meiji 15) and 1883 (Meiji 16), as part of the cruise of the Marchesa, an auxiliary screw schooner yacht; travelling in Japan for a total period of five months. He left two volumes of travelogues and many photographs of his travels and these materials now belong to Cambridge University Library. He published two volumes of the book, The Cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka & New Guinea in 1886, but his travels in Japan were not included, except for his visit to Ryukyu (now called Okinawa). I already referred to Guillemard's travelogues and photographs at the EAJRS Heidelberg Conference in 1997, and I would like to contribute a paper on Guillemard's photographic collection of Japan as a part of the conference's special topic, "Japan in Images".
At Cambridge University Library, there are twelve large boxes of Guillemard's early photographs taken during the cruise of the Marchesa in 1882-1884. Nearly half (five boxes) are photographs of Japan, with one box each for Ceylon, Labuan & Borneo, Celebes, New Guinea and Sulu Island, and two boxes for the East Indies. There are 217 plates of photographs of Japan in these five boxes including seven duplicates.
With only one exception, all the images of these photographs are the same size, 21cm x 25cm. Most of the photographs were taken by Usui Shuzaburo, a photographer from Yokohama. Usui Shuzaburo was a pupil of Shimooka Renjo, one of the pioneer photographers in Japan and Usui and at least one assistant accompanied Guillemard's journey in Japan in 1882 (Meiji 15) and 1883 (Meiji 16).
I would like to introduce Guillemard's early photographs of Japan, showing some samples of them through slides. Guillemard arrived at Yokohama ten months before Ezaki Reiji produced the first successful dry plate photographs in Japan. According to his travelogues, Guillemard brought dry plates to the photographers Stillfried & Anderson at Yokohama who developed them for him. I would like to describe Guillemard's collection of early photographs in relation to the history of dry plate photography in Japan.
Dobson Sebastian 2003
A Pioneering British Photographer in Hokkaido: Lieutenant Swinton Holland and the Ainu, 1871
Sebastian Dobson
The Japan Society, London
This paper is an examination of the work of Lieutenant Swinton Holland (1843-1922) of the British Royal Navy, who visited Hokkaido in 1871, and whose photographs of the indigenous Ainu people not only represent an important stage in early ethnographic documentation, but also illustrate the role played by an important group of Western amateur photographers in recording Japan in the years immediately before and after the Meiji Restoration.
Swinton Holland's role as a pioneering photographer among the Ainu people of Hokkaido has only been fully appreciated with the discovery earlier this year of his journals in a British institutional collection, as a result of which many of his photographs can now be positively identified. Although photographers in the previous decade had succeeded in securing photographic likenesses of Ainu, none had ventured to the Ainus' habitat, but had instead photographed Ainu visitors to the treaty port of Hakodate. From an ethnographic point of view, the work of Holland's predecessors was as representative of the Ainu people as a portrait taken in the American West of any native American who had wandered into a frontier town was representative of the tribes of the Great Plains. Holland's duties as a naval officer serving on a British survey vessel in Hokkaido in 1871 took him directly to the habitat of the Ainu, and his background as an accomplished amateur photographer qualified him to produce the first true photographic survey of Hokkaido's native inhabitants. When examined alongside his writings, Holland's photographs give us an unusually immediate view of the Ainu people in the first years of the Meiji Era.
Holland's work is also an illustration of how, during the 1860s, there was a particularly strong between early photography in Japan and the Western naval presence in Japanese waters: this was a time when amateur naval photographers had a distinct advantage over commercial photographers in being able to take their cameras to places which were considered too dangerous or inaccessible for their civilian counterparts to visit. I propose to give a brief introduction to this aspect of early documentary photography in Japan, and to draw my colleagues' attention to an area of photo-historical research where there is almost certainly more material awaiting discovery. To date, we have only found the work of amateur photographers serving in the navies of Britain and France during this time, yet we know that naval vessels from the United States, the Netherlands, Russia, Prussia and even Italy made frequent voyages to Japan. Is it not possible that further research in American and European collections will reveal that officers from these countries as well were making their own unique contributions to the early photographic record of Japan?
AIBA, Atsushi & MIYAKE, Ikuo 2003
Database of Japanese Early Photographs at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (NICHIBUNKEN)
AIBA, Atsushi & MIYAKE, Ikuo
International Research Center for Japanese Studies
Abstract
NICHIBUNKEN has created a number of digital databases of materials valuable for research on Japan. Accessible from the Internet, these databases take several forms, including, variously, unstructured full text, visual images, maps (antique and contemporary), and bibliographic information.
Last year we developed a unified search engine for searching the databases created by Nichibunken. This year's main project is to construct a database of historical photographs of Kyoto, selecting from among the more than 71,000 slides and photographs in the Nichibunken collection. We will digitize about 7,000 items showing temples, shrines, gardens, and other sites in Kyoto. We are now compiling comprehensive documentation for the creation of this database.