visual culture - Japan (via MIT)

Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan  (1853-1854)  by John W. Dower
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/black_ships_and_samurai/index.html

Black Ships &Samurai ll
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/black_ships_and_samurai_02/

Visual Narratives
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/black_ships_and_samurai_02/index.html

Yokohama Boomtown - Foreigners in Treaty-Port Japan (1859-1872) by John W. Dower
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/yokohama/index.html

Felice Beato's Japan: Places. An Album by the Pioneer Foreign Photographer in Yokohama. Essay by Allen Hockley  
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/beato_places/index.html

Felice Beato's Japan: People. An Album by the Pioneer Foreign Photographer in Yokohama. Essay by Allen Hockley
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/beato_people/index.html

Globetrotters' Japan: Places. Foreigners on te Tourist Circuit in Meiji Japan. Essay by Allen Hockley
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/gt_japan_places/index.html

Globetrotters' Japan: People. Foreigners on te Tourist Circuit in Meiji Japan. Essay by Allen Hockley
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/gt_japan_people/index.html

Throwing Off Asia l. Woodblock Prints of  Domestic “Westernization (1868-1912) by John W. Dower
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/throwing_off_asia_01/index.html

Throwing Off Asia ll. Woodblock Prints of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) by John W. Dower
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/throwing_off_asia_02/index.html

Throwing Off Asia lll. Woodblock Prints of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) by John W. Dower
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/throwing_off_asia_03/index.html

Asia Rising. Japanese Postcards of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) by John W. Dower
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/asia_rising/index.html

Yellow Promise. Foreign Postcards of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) by John W. Dower
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/yellow_promise_yellow_peril/index.html

Selling Shiseido l. Cosmetics Advertising &Design in Early 20th-Century Japan. Essay by Gennifer Weisenfeld
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/shiseido_01/index.html

Selling Shiseido ll. Cosmetics Advertising &Design in Early 20th-Century Japan. Visual Narratives
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/shiseido_02/index.html

Selling Shiseido lll. Cosmetics Advertising &Design in Early 20th-Century Japan. Image Galleries
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/shiseido_03/index.html

Tokyo Modern l. Koizumi Kishio's 100 Views of the Imperial Capital (1928-1940). Essay by James T. Ulak
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/tokyo_modern_01/index.html

Tokyo Modern ll. Koizumi Kishio 100 Views. Annotations Gallery
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/tokyo_modern_02/index.html

Tokyo Modern lll. 100 Views by 8 Artists (1928-1932). Image Galleries
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/tokyo_modern_03/index.html

Ground Zero 1945. Pictures by Atomic Bomb Survivors. Essay by John W. Dower
Ground Zero 1945: A Schoolboy's Story

http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/groundzero1945/index.html

Testimony of Akihiro Takahashi. Illustrations by Goro Shikoku
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/groundzero1945_2/index.html

all about Okinawan Studies

International Institute for Okinawan Studies (IIOS) at
University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan.
 
"A hub research institution in the Asia-Pacific region beyond boundaries: Looking at the global from Okinawa's local perspectives.
IIOS is an interdisciplinary institution that integrated research centers at UR, aiming to develop multifaceted and international research projects on Okinawa and related areas."
 
includes:
* Contemporary Okinawan Studies [incl. contents of the launched in 2010
Japanese language 'International Journal of Okinawan Studies' (IJOS)
http://www.iios.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/IJOS_pub/
 
*A bi-lingual (JP,EN) site. In Nov 2010 the English language section of the site was under construction
at http://www.iios.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/en/

collection of images, mainly 1930s

Postcard Collection. The collection is part of our open-access digital archive called Lafayette College East Asia Image Collections. The Lin
Collection consists of 370 Japanese postcards, mostly depicting scenes from 1930s Japan and Taiwan, but with some images of from Korea and
China. http://digital.lafayette.edu/collections/eastasia

the story of 'gunkan shima' (Nagasaki-ken)

Hashima Island (also known as 'battleship island' for it's size, shape and cement sea walls): From 1905 until the coal mining ended in 1974 it was a unique community; quoting http://www.jamaipanese.com/hashima-island-documentary/

Except for the former resident who guides the movie crew, most of the 15 minute documentary is narrated in perhaps Swedish (subtitles in English).


In 1916 the largest concrete structures in all of Japan were built on Hashima Island to help protect it's inhabitants from typhoons and at it's peak in 1959 the population was over 5000 or 1,391 people per 10,000 square metres the highest population density ever recorded in the world. Please take the time to have a look at an awesome documentary video I have embedded below that tells the history of Gunkanjima from someone who grew up there as a child.

[vimeo URL, http://vimeo.com/2044441]

A trip to this island would make an amazing out of the box location to visit if/when I eventually make it to Japan, I wonder if I'd survive the trip by boast to get there though. Would you want to visit Battleship Island?
Official Website (Japanese); Hashima Island on Wikipedia

Japanese Garden Dictionary online

Japanese Garden Dictionary, http://www.nabunken.go.jp/database/jgd/
 -- A Glossary for Japanese Gardens and Their History
 
...This online dictionary is based on the Bilingual [Japanese &
English] Dictionary of Japanese Garden Terms, published in 2001 ...
This online compilation, maintained by the Department of
Cultural Heritage of the Nara National Research Institute for
Cultural Properties, is intended to make the English language content
of the original dictionary more widely accessible.

Site contents, A to Z:
* English index (Over 600 entries organised alphabetically,
from abbot's quarters, aggregate lantern, aka well, Akisato Rito,
Amanohashidate, Amida hall, angler fish basin, arbor, arched bridge,
arched stone bridge, arching stone, armor pattern screen fence, and
artificial hill, [...]
through [...], milepost lantern, millstone, miniature landscape, mirror
stone, mist-shaped island, monkey pine, moon shadow stone, moss, moss
garden, mountain base stone, mountain island, mountain path stone,
mountain slope stone, and mountain-and-water landscape, [...] to
[...], waterfowl stone, waterside lantern, wave-receiving stone,
wayside stone, weathered beauty western style garden, who goes there?
lantern, wild wave stone, wing stone, wisteria yard, wooden bridge,
wooden conduit, wooden gate, wooden steps, worshiping stone, Yang
stone, yarai fence, yarimizu stream, Yin stone, Yin-Yang stones, yoko
ochi (cascade), Yosuien garden, Zen'ami, and zigzag bridge);

* Japanese index.

copyright guidance

Details, as well as sample situations, for the legal use of images and other potentially copyrighted material is outlined at
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ncc/imageuse/rightsholder.html

follow-up response on the H-Japan list, www.h-net.org for 13 July 2010
From my own experience as an author: I believe with the 1930 case, one would determine that permission is not needed since the organization is gone. (But if an artist is credited or the likeness of an individual appears in the illustration that would be a different matter.) For example, magazines I have worked with have said that it would be OK to republish advertisements from companies that are now out of business, and that their own (the magazine's) permission is not needed since it is over 50 years since publication, though I try to get it anyway if they can be contacted. I would guess that legally you need permission for the 1990s item, but perhaps there are fair use practices for such government documents? Of course, I am not a lawyer, but these are just my personal experiences with these sorts of materials.
[S. Frederick]

summer lion dance, shishimai

Friends in Fukui-ken created a YouTube channel recently. They've started with two movies,
about 10 minutes each (YouTube limit on ordinary accounts):
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTIFjCIAllc [troupe based in Mie, but traveling their annual circuit of blessing]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GikgN-nSus [lots of commentary in the ?Mie-ken dialect; juggling at 6'45"]

new book, Women and Family in Contemporary Japan

author Susan Holloway, s_hollo@berkeley dotedu

Women and Family in Contemporary Japan, by Cambridge University Press.

Japanese women have often been singled out for their strong commitment to the role of housewife and mother. But they are now postponing marriage and bearing fewer children, and Japan has become one of the least fertile and fastest aging countries in the world. Why are so many Japanese women opting out of family life?
 
To answer this question, the author draws on in-depth interviews and extensive survey data to examine Japanese mothers'
perspectives and experiences of marriage, parenting, and family life. The goal is to understand how, as introspective, self-aware individuals, these women interpret and respond to the barriers and opportunities afforded within the structural and ideological contexts of contemporary Japan.
 
The findings suggest a need for changes in the structure of the workplace and the education system to provide women with the opportunity to find a fulfilling balance of work and family life.

http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521180375

online Japanese language learning

via Senseionline 18 June 2010:
 
...for people who would like to learn Japanese and aren't conveniently located by an institution or
a friend that will teach it to them, this might be just the information they were looking for:

*UAB NihongoCast,* http://www.uab.edu/foreignlang/nihongocast/, the online version of Japanese
101 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a joint production of the UAB Departments of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Communication Studies, and Theatre, taught by Tim Cook of Georgia Public Broadcasting's *Irasshai.*

images from colonial Taiwan and occupied Japan

Digital Collections at Lafayette College has developed a new digital repository titled "The East Asia Image Collection." In its current state, the collection consists primarily of images, many unpublished, of colonial Taiwan. It also contains 567 color slides from occupied Japan. We shall be adding unpublished images from 1930s Japan, North and NE China, and Indonesia in the coming months.

http://digital.lafayette.edu/collections/eastasia

performing arts database/multimedia

www.glopad.org/jparc
 
JPARC is an online resource center for research on and the study of the performing arts of Japan. The site includes sections for the analysis of certain topics, multimedia articles, and reference materials such as glossaries, bibliographies, browsing indexes, and timelines. Modules are collections of Web pages devoted to a specific topic such as important theatrical figures or readings and productions of a single piece.For a tour see the video Welcome to JPARC! 

online magazine, The Netherlands-Japan Review

The Netherlands-Japan Review, http://magazine.sieboldhuis.org/

online --Ainu Komonjo

=-=-= posted to EASIANTH email list Friday 26 Feb 2010:

 

The University of Wisconsin Digital Collection ...The UWDC has scanned [Pr. Emiko] Ohunki-Tierney's  collection of books on the Ainu by the Japanese. The books focus on the Sakhalin Ainu... The books are extremely rare and are either hand-written, with illustrations hand-drawn, or are wood block prints. Many of these early documents were authored by explorers and scholars at the order of the Bakufu or the Matsumae clan. Since these authors were sent by the Japanese government which for the first time began to be concerned with territorial expansions and boundaries, these documents often include a number of detailed maps, including the topography and Ainu place names.

The Ainu Komonjo (18th & 19th century records) -- Ohnuki Collection can be freely viewed at:
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/EastAsian.JapanRice

Valentine's Day in Japan 2010

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123635365
Chocolate-giving is a ritual among everyone in Japan from schoolchildren to senior citizens. But the country has developed its own way of celebrating the erstwhile day of romance, and the custom is still evolving.
[www.npr.org on Friday, Feb. 12, 2010]