Cross-Lingual and Cross-Chronological Information Access to Multilingual Historical Documents

In this chapter, we present our work in realizing information access across different languages and periods. Nowadays, digital collections of historical documents have to handle materials written in many different languages in different time periods. Even in a particular language, there are significant differences over time in terms of grammar, vocabulary and script. Our goal is to develop a method to access digital collections in a wide range of periods from ancient to modern. We introduce an information extraction method for digitized ancient Mongolian historical manuscripts for reducing labour-intensive analysis. The proposed method performs computerized analysis on Mongolian historical documents. Named entities such as personal names and place names are extracted by employing support vector machine. The extracted named entities are utilized to create a digital edition that reflects an ancient Mongolian historical manuscript written in traditional Mongolian script. The Text Encoding Initiative guidelines are adopted to encode the named entities, transcriptions and interpretations of ancient words. A web-based prototype system is developed for utilizing digital editions of ancient Mongolian historical manuscripts as scholarly tools. The proposed prototype has the capability to display and search traditional Mongolian text and its transliteration in Latin letters along with the highlighted named entities and the scanned images of the source manuscript

Mapping Late Hokusai Research: Digitizing and Publishing Bilingual Research Data

The initiative “Late Hokusai: Thought, Technique, Society” took place at the British Museum (BM) and SOAS, University of London (2016–2019). As part of its activities, it built a linked-data platform prototype on ResearchSpace. The prototype offers a redesigned process for how museum researchers and users find, research with, discuss and expand bilingual data about early modern Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) and instigated a discussion about what a collaborative research platform for the Hokusai research community could look like. While Japanese resource specialists have long recognized the complexity of Japanese script as a challenge for multilingual research and collection platforms, the processes for and results of integrating Japanese source data into bi- or multilingual museum databases remained unsatisfactory. This paper revisits the challenges posed by “non-Latin script” (NLS) in museum databases in the case of the Hokusai research platform at the British Museum, which integrated Japanese and English languages. It localizes the issues arising from working with Japanese source data in the Latin script project environment and accompanies the museum researchers’ tasks regarding the correct input, rendering and display of the source script at each step: 1) object analysis, 2) registering NLS metadata, 3) processing NLS information and 4) visualizing LS and NLS information for general and specialist audiences. After assessing these practices, the paper critically reflects on selected approaches, successes, and shortcomings experienced while creating such a prototype. By sharing its experiences, the project hopes to aid prospective research projects on a similar path regarding project setup and documentation. Furthermore, it advocates the sustainability of research practices according to data reusability parameters. L’initiative « Late Hokusai : Thought Technique and Society » (Hokusai tardif : Pensées techniques et société) a eu lieu au British Museum (BM) et SOAS, l’Université de Londres (2016-2019). Dans le cadre des activités, cette initiative a produit une plateforme prototype de Web des données sur ResearchSpace. Le prototype offre un processus redessiné aidant les chercheurs de musée et les usagers à trouver, à faire de la recherche, à discuter et à étoffer les données bilingues concernant l’artiste Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), du début de l’ère moderne japonaise. Cela a déclenché une discussion sur l’apparence possible d’une plateforme de recherche collaborative dédiée à la communauté de recherche sur Hokusai. Tandis que les spécialistes de ressources japonaises reconnaissent depuis longtemps la complexité de l’écriture japonaise comme un défi pour la recherche multilingue et pour les plateformes de collection, les processus et les résultats de l’intégration des données sources japonaises dans des bases de données de musées bi- ou plurilingues demeurent insatisfaisants. Cet article réexamine les défis liés à des « écritures non-latines » (NLS, non-Latin script) dans des bases de données de musée dans le cas de la plateforme de recherche sur Hokusai au British Museum, ce qui a intégré les langues japonaise et anglaise. L’article localise les questions qui se posent durant le travail avec les données sources japonaises dans un environnement de projet en écriture latine et accompagne les tâches des chercheurs de musée concernant l’entrée correcte, le rendu et l’affichage de l’écriture source à chaque étape : 1) les analyses d’objet, 2) les enregistrements de métadonnées NLS, 3) le traitement de l’information NLS et 4) la visualisation de l’information LS (écriture latine, Latin script) et NLS pour des audiences générales et spécialistes. Cet article présentera une évaluation de ces pratiques et, ensuite, considérera de façon critique les approches sélectionnées, les succès et les défauts rencontrés pendant la création d’un tel prototype. En partageant ces expériences, ce projet vise à aider des projets de recherche prospectifs qui se trouvent dans un cas similaire, considérant la configuration de projets et la documentation. En outre, ce projet promeut la viabilité de pratiques de recherche conformément à des paramètres de réutilisation de données

The Color Revolution: Printed Books In Eighteenth-Century Japan

Beginning in the mid-1760s, images printed in more than five colors in early modern Japan were known as nishiki-e 錦絵, or “brocade pictures,” an appellation that signaled their visual richness in distinction to prints in monochrome or limited color. Most accounts of full-color printing locate the development of this technology and its visual impact in the medium of the single-sheet print, as part of the genre of ukiyo-e 浮世絵 (the “pictures of the floating world”). This project revises that view by considering the illustrated books produced in the full-color technique, which predate or appear contemporaneously with the so-called “nishiki-e revolution.” Closely analyzing the materiality and visual programs of these books reveals how their use of printed color not only constitutes an important shift in technical practices of printing, but also signals a wider engagement with the artistic, social, and scientific discourses of mid-eighteenth century Japan. Ranging from interest in the natural world to painting, from poetry to scientific classification, from elite milieux to commercial publishers, these illustrated books demonstrate the convergence of a diverse set of concerns upon the particular medium of the color-printed, thread-bound book. The three case studies analyzed in this dissertation take up books differentiated by subject matter, style, and artistic genres. The first two chapters examine a book of fishes and its sequel, on the theme of plants and insects; both books are genre-bending works that combine concerns of poetry, natural studies, and painting. The third chapter considers two picture books of the floating world (ukiyo-ehon 浮世絵本), which feature actors and prostitutes of the pleasure quarter, respectively. Tracing the movement of printed “full color” from its emergence in the context of coterie poetry groups to its later status as a commercial imperative, this study reframes the earliest full-color illustrated books as critical artifacts of technological and epistemological change for picture-making and print in early modern Japan, centered around the materiality and conceptual power of color

Keys to Play: Music as a Ludic Medium from Apollo to Nintendo

How do keyboards make music playable? Drawing on theories of media, systems, and cultural techniques, Keys to Play spans Greek myth and contemporary Japanese digital games to chart a genealogy of musical play and its animation via improvisation, performance, and recreation. As a paradigmatic digital interface, the keyboard forms a field of play on which the book’s diverse objects of inquiry—from clavichords to PCs and eighteenth-century musical dice games to the latest rhythm-action titles—enter into analogical relations. Remapping the keyboard’s topography by way of Mozart and Super Mario, who head an expansive cast of historical and virtual actors, Keys to Play invites readers to unlock ludic dimensions of music that are at once old and new

Japanilaisen kirjallisuuden englanninnokset : kustantamo Alfred A. Knopfin käännöshanke 1955-1977

Japanese literature in English translation has a history of 165 years, but before the end of World War II no publisher outside Japan had put out a sustained series of novel-length translations. The New York house of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. published 34 English translations of Japanese literature between 1955 and 1977. This program was carried out under the leadership of Harold Strauss, who endeavored to bring modern writers of Japan to the stage of world literature. Strauss and most of the translators were trained in American military language schools. The aim of this dissertation is to study the publisher's policies and publishing criteria in the selection of texts, the actors involved in the mediation process and the preparation of the texts for market, the reception of the texts and their impact on the profile of Japanese literature. The theoretical backdrop is built around the distinction of product, process and function, viewed through the sociology of translation. This includes Pierre Bourdieu s constructs of habitus and capital and the Actor-Network Theory, as well as Karen Thornber s concept of literary contact nebulae in settings of less steeply inclined hierarchical relations. An examination of Japanese to English translations investigates the trends and practices which developed after the forced opening of Japan, drawing upon materials from the Knopf archives, including correspondence between the authors, the editor and the translators. Personal interviews and correspondence with the translators, autobiographies, and memoirs add to the archival records. Peritextual and epitextual data help trace events and actions within this period of Japanese literature in English translation and assist with the investigation into the reception and legacy of the texts. Findings clarify the policies and criteria employed at a major publishing firm. The role of the editor is explored in perhaps more detail than in earlier reports. Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and capital complement the notion of following the actors in Actor-Network Theory. Materials obtained from a translator and interviews with others add a qualitative perspective supported by the idea of literary contact nebulae. The Knopf translations have a wider circulation in Japan than in the English-language markets. Further, a number of the publications have proven more profitable in European languages. The long tail sales have kept the translations in print and in classrooms to this day. These findings point to new areas of investigation. Knopf was the most active publisher in a period where English translations were published for the general reader. The translations were later inscribed as text and research materials in the growing university curricula of the then-nascent fields of Japanese studies and comparative literature. Keywords: Japanese literature in English translation, habitus, capital, Actor-Network Theory, transculturation, translation historyJapanilaisen kirjallisuuden englannintamisella on 165 vuoden historia, mutta ennen toisen maailmansodan loppua ei Japanin ulkopuolella oltu julkaistu mittavaa sarjaa käännöksiä englanniksi. Newyorkilainen kustantamo Alfred A. Knopf julkaisi 34 käännöstä vuosina 1955-1977. Hanketta johti Harold Strauss, jonka tavoitteena oli tuoda modernit japanilaiskirjailijat maailmankartalle. Strauss ja valtaosa kääntäjistä olivat Yhdysvaltain asevoimien kouluttamia. Väitös tutkii kustantajan toimintatapoja liittyen tekstien valintaan, käännösprosessiin osallistuviin tahoihin ja teosten saattamiseen markkinoille sekä niiden synnyttämään kuvaan japanilaisesta kirjallisuudesta. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen kehys perustuu käännöstuotoksen, -prosessin ja -funktion erottamiseen; näitä tarkastellaan kääntämisen sosiologian kautta. Tämä tarkoittaa sekä toimijaverkkoteorian ja Pierre Bourdieun käsitteiden soveltamista että Karen Thornberin ideaa kirjallisten kontaktien nebuloista ympäristössä, jossa hierarkiset suhteet eivät ole kovin jyrkkiä. Tarkastelussa tutkitaan trendejä ja toimintatapoja, jotka kehittyivät Japanin avautumista seuranneina vuosikymmeninä. Väitös nojaa Knopfin arkistomateriaaliin, joka sisältää kirjailijoiden, kustannustoimittajien ja kääntäjien välistä kirjeenvaihtoa. Kääntäjien haastattelut ja heidän kanssaan käyty kirjeenvaihto sekä elämäkerrat ja muistelmat täydentävät tietoja. Peri- ja epitekstit auttavat tämän japanilaisen kirjallisuuden englannintamisen ajanjakson hahmottamisessa. Ne myös auttavat tekstien vastaanoton ja niiden synnyttämän perinnön tutkimisessa. Löydökset avaavat merkittävän kustantamon toimintatapoja. Kustannustoimittajan osuutta käsitellään kenties syvemmin kuin aiemmissa tutkimuksissa. Bourdieun konseptit habitus ja pääoma täydentävät toimijaverkkoteorian mukaista toimijoiden seuraamisesta. Eräältä kääntäjältä saatu aineisto sekä kääntäjien ja kirjailijoiden haastattelut tuovat tutkimukseen kvalitatiivisen näkökulman, jota ajatus kirjallisten kontaktien nebuloista tukee. Knopfin käännnöksillä on laajempi levikki Japanissa kuin englanninkielisillä markkinoilla. Useat eurooppalaisille kielille englanninnosten pohjalta tehdyt käännökset ovat myös olleet Knopfin julkaisuja kannattavampia. Pokkariversioiden myynnin ns. pitkä häntä on pitänyt käännökset julkaisulistoilla ja luokkahuoneissa nykypäivään saakka. Havaintojen perusteella voidaan nostaa tarkasteluun uusia tutkimusaiheita. Knopf oli aktiivisin kustantaja ajanjaksona, jolloin käännöksiä julkaistiin suurelle yleisölle. Teoksia on myöhemmin käytetty laajalti teksti- ja tutkimusaineistoina alati kasvaneilla Japanin tutkimuksen ja yleisen kirjallisuustieteen aloilla. Avainsanat: Japanilaisen kirjallisuuden englanninnokset, habitus, sosiaalinen pääoma, toimijaverkkoteoria, transkulturaatio, kääntämisen histori

“MORE JAPANESE THAN JAPANESE”: SUBJECTIVATION IN THE AGE OF BRAND NATIONALISM AND THE INTERNET

Today, modern technologies and the rapid circulation of information across geographic boundaries are said to be making the nation-state less relevant to daily life. In contrast, this dissertation argues that national boundary maintenance is increasingly made more relevant not in spite of such technologies, but precisely because of them. Indeed, processes of circulation are themselves making and re-making such boundaries rather than erasing them, while states simultaneously react to contain the perceived threats of globalization and to capitalize on the sale of their “cultural” commodities through nation branding. For American otaku, or Japan fans, internet technologies and the consumption of Japanese media like videogames and anime are quintessential global flows from within which they first articulate a desire for Japan. Increasingly, some make the very real decision to leave home and settle in Japan, although scholars have suggested otaku are unable to understand the “real” Japan. Once there, however, the Japanese state’s ongoing nation branding policies, along with immigration control and patterns of everyday interactions with Japanese citizens, marginalize even long-term residents as perpetual visitors. Building on the work of Foucault, I seek to understand how notions of national “of courseness,” which fix Japaneseness as naturally homogeneous and impenetrable, subjectivize American fans. Drawing on 12 months of full time participant observation with otaku living in Tokyo, along with 18 months of part time follow-up research, diachronic interviews with Americans in the US and Japan, and extensive textual analysis of all things “Japanese,” this work contrasts the purported deterritorializing promise of online communications and the withering of the relevance of the modern nation-state, with the national boundary making work that these otaku migrants participate in, both online and off. Once in Japan, otaku themselves actively support Japan's nation branding efforts by teaching English and producing the very cultural commodities that motivated their migration in the first place, as they increasingly codify what Japaneseness is for other “foreigners.” At the same time, otaku migrants further reproduce Japanese national identity through accepting and affirming their status as non-Japanese, and through the reinscription of these very boundaries onto other otaku

Mooring the global archive: a Japanese ship and its migrant histories

Martin Dusinberre follows the Yamashiro-maru steamship across Asian and Pacific waters in an innovative history of Japan's engagement with the outside world in the late-nineteenth century. His compelling in-depth analysis reconstructs the lives of some of the thousands of male and female migrants who left Japan for work in Hawai'i, Southeast Asia and Australia. These stories bring together transpacific historiographies of settler colonialism, labour history and resource extraction in new ways. Drawing on an unconventional and deeply material archive, from gravestones to government files, paintings to song, and from digitized records to the very earth itself, Dusinberre addresses key questions of method and authorial positionality in the writing of global history. This engaging investigation into archival practice asks, what is the global archive, where is it cited, and who are 'we' as we cite it? This title is also available as Open Access