abstract

Re-Envisioning Japan: Japan as Destination in 20th Century Visual and Material Culture (REJ) conjoins an original collection of early- to mid-20th-century multimedia tourism ephemera with a collaboratively built, open-access digital archive that dynamically displays these objects in digital space. Designed to allow curated access to resources documenting representations of Japan and its place in the world, REJ’s archive draws on Carole Palmer's idea of a Thematic Research Collection, a web-based resource in which scholarship is embedded in both the product and its use. Silent cinema research and film preservation work inspired the original collection of travel-contingent objects that make this hybrid project a tool for re-envisioning Japan's past in granular detail.

Scholarly communities emerge around and are sustained by archives. As a digital information hub and repository for open-access resources, Japan Past & Present (JPP) seeks to mobilize the centripetal force of the archive to reimagine the Japanese humanities as a genuinely global field. On the one hand, JPP works to provide global access to archives and information; on the other, it offers funding to incentivize the formation of global groups of scholars who tap into the potential of local archives.

Despite the fact that the CEEJA Japan Library contains a variety of special collections that, at first glance, might appear more pertinent to the conference theme, this preliminary introduction will focus on the extensive collection of regional and local histories, in Japanese "chihôshi".
This assertion may initially appear counterintuitive; however, upon closer examination of the global image of Japan, it becomes evident that regional and local histories play a pivotal role. The global image of Japan is predominantly influenced by the national narrative, which conveys a generalised representation of the nation. Conversely, regional and local histories have the capacity to contribute to the deconstruction of the national narrative and global image by serving as sources of diversity and variety.

This presentation introduces digitize Japan-related collections at the Museum of Cultural History of University of Oslo and the University of Oslo Library.
The University Museum preserves a diverse range of Japanese handcrafted objects, including suits of armor and other weapons, many of which have entered the collection through donations. In autumn 2025, the museum launched a portal of series of themes based on items already digitized in its collection database. One of these is focus on seventeen suits of Japanese armor, the sites are available in English, Norwegian, Japanese. In addition, 3D “Samurai” exhibition is available which was held at the museum in 2023.

The National Diet Library (NDL) makes available to its overseas patrons the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Libraries (DCTL) and Remote Photoduplication Service (PDF download) as useful tools for Japanese studies.
The DCTL provides patrons at NDL partner libraries with access to digitized materials that are protected by copyright but out-of-print or otherwise difficult-to-obtain. The reception of digital content transmitted by the NDL is considered to be subject to the law of the country where the content is received, which means that compliance with the laws of the receiving country must be ensured. For this reason, partner libraries overseas are required to follow a special application procedure.

This paper examines a remarkable collection of Japanese illustrated books from the Edo period, preserved within the Japanese holdings of the Guimet Museum Library. Acquired in 1893 from the collector Léon Joly de Morey (1837–1896), who remains little documented today, this collection nevertheless constitutes a corpus of exceptional quality, both in its coherence and its state of preservation.

法政大学国際日本学研究所では、日本政府文部科学省「国際共同に基づく日本研究推進事業」その他の助成を受けて「在欧博物館等保管日本仏教美術資料データベース」の作成を進めている。このデータベースは、最終目標としては全欧州の博物館に所蔵されている日本仏教美術を共通の基準でデータベース化し、公表することによって、そこから浮かびあがる欧州における日本観を描き出そうとするものである。

The Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, has built a foundation for research use by surveying, reproducing, and cataloguing Japanese historical materials held by institutions in Japan and abroad. This presentation examines how the Institute publishes historical images and related data for materials whose originals are held by institutions other than the Institute itself.

Since the time of the Man'yōshū, Mount Fuji has been a constant subject of literary works. As Japan’s most iconic mountain, it has come to symbolize the very essence of the country. Poetry, in particular, has played a significant role in this regard. The kana preface to the Kokin Wakashū, the canonical collection of waka poetry, states that one’s feelings of love are likened to the smoke rising from Mount Fuji, and that those who hear the smoke has ceased to rise find solace in waka poetry. The question of whether Mount Fuji’s smoke is rising or not is addressed in a subtle manner. Below, we will examine how people who actually saw Mount Fuji described its smoke.

The data of the “Meiji-Portraits” portal was originally compiled by Bernd Lepach until 2022 based on his own research and presented on the website of the same name (http://meiji-portraits.de/). Mediated by Erich Pauer, who repeatedly supported Bernd Lepach in his work, and Regine Mathias (Vice-President "Études Japonaises", Centre Européen d'Études Japonaises d'Alsace (CEEJA)) the Specialist Information Service Asia (FID Asia) took over this data and stored it. Its transformation into the present website took place in 2025 as part of the work package “SOLR as a Service” during the project phase 2025-2027 of the FID Asia.