“Database of Visual Images in Modern Japanese Popular Magazines from the Kasho Museum Collection” is now open on the Nichibunken website
The International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) has newly made available its “Database of Visual Images in Modern Japanese Popular Magazines from the Kasho Museum Collection.” Featured in the database are metadata and around 2,000 of their International Image Interoperability Framework-enabled (IIIF) images such as the front and back covers, tables of contents, and frontispieces of the 37 titles and 405 issues archived in the museum, dating from 1901-1941.
The database was created as part of collaborative research-promotion activities driven by Nichibunken’s Japanese Popular Culture Research Project, the Society for Taisho Imagery Studies, and the Kasho Museum. The imagery in popular magazines—such as illustrations, posters, postcards, advertisements, cartoons, and photos, as well as cover art and illustrations, done by, among other artists, Takabatake Kashō(1888–1966)—inspired the founding of the Society for Taisho Imagery Studies and is an important resource for examining the visual aspects of popular culture of 1910s–20s Japan. By making the image resources open to public, Nichibunken also aims to contribute to transdisciplinary studies spanning such fields as art history, cultural history, sociology, and history, and in turn widely convey the beauty of popular imagery to the public.
Resources covered in the database: Popular magazines from the Kasho Museum collection (37 titles and 405 issues)
- Girls’ magazines: Shōjo gahō (Girls’ Illustrated), Shōjo no tomo (Girls’ Friend), Reijo kai (Girls’ World), etc.
- Boys’ magazines: Shōnen kurabu (Boys’ Club), Nihon shōnen (Japanese Boys), etc.
- Women’s magazines: Fujin sekai (World of Women), Fujokai (Women’s World), Josei (Women), Shufu no tomo (Housewife’s Friend), etc.
- Entertainment- and culture-themed magazines: Kōdan kurabu (Storytelling Club), Omoshiro kurabu (Fun Club), Gendai (Modern Times), Tokyo, etc.
Key characteristics
- The database contains imagery created by some 300 Japanese and 70 overseas artists (including images not available to the public), as well as metadata
- By adopting IIIF, an international framework for making images and other digitized resources interoperable and accessible, the database aims to serve as a widely used source, from members of the general public to scholars around the world
- The images accessible on the database are only those for which the copyright has expired and those for which the copyright owner has given permission for use.
●Developers
●Takabatake Kashō
●The Kasho Museum
●The Nichibunken Japanese Popular Culture Research Project
●The Society for Taisho Imagery Studies
Database of Visual Images in Modern Japanese Popular Magazines from the Kasho Museum Collection https://iiif.nichibun.ac.jp/TKB/