NCC's Resource Sharing Committee will hold an online information-sharing session on the National Diet Library Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Libraries. We're delighted to feature librarians who recently led the updated application process successfully at North American universities.

What’s the latest from the National Diet Library? You can learn about this 19th cen collection of paintings on toys from around the world, explore their modern political history materials, and learn more about their training programs for Asian resources! Check it out @: www.ndl.go.jp/en/publicati...

Where can you find high resolution showcases of Edo period illustrated books? ✨🗾 Revisit this #NCCSpotlight by Dr. Kit Brooks on the National Museum of Asian Art’s Pulverer Collection and all its fascinating materials! guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

Want to explore digital ways to curate exhibits & engage digital audiences? 💻 For an intro to @omeka.org you can check out the presentation by Alexandra Bolintineanu (Assistant Professor, University of Toronto) from NCC’s 2017 digital scholarship workshop! guides.nccjapan.org/torontodigit...

Today is Culture Day #文化の日 in Japan! Celebrate the many facets of Japanese culture with a little imaginary trip to Utagawa Hiroshige’s vision of folks walking the city in Edo Japan in the 1830s. 🗾 Held by the Rotterdam Museum.: collectie.wereldmuseum.nl?query=search...

It’s Halloween! 🎃 Time to let your skeleton shine! 💀🦴 Are you a dancing skeleton? Celebratory skeleton? This spooky season enjoy these possibilities from the late 19th century by Kawanabe Kyōsai. #ハロウィン Held by the University of California San Francisco Library: calisphere.org/item/ark:/13...

Where do we encounter Alice in Wonderland in Japanese popular media culture? 🍄🐛 Revisit our #NCCSpotlight on the Cassady Lewis Carroll Collection at USC Libraries by Drs. Rebecca Corbett & Jesse Drian to find out what their collections have to offer! guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

How can librarians help incorporate information literacy into different kinds of Japan-related educational content? 📝 Learn all about Sharon Domier’s approach in her “Information Literacy for Language Learners” talk at NCC’s 2012 JJSLT workshop! guides.nccjapan.org/c.php?g=3557...

If you’re thinking about showcasing library or archival collections with digital tools, explore this video from our CDDP series by Catherine Aster (Stanford) to learn possibilities! 💻📚 See “Introduction to Spotlight: Digital Showcases for Research and Teaching”: guides.nccjapan.org/cddp/video-s...

Want to know more about the possibilities of digital text storage & analysis?📚 Explore slides from “Towards a Scalable Digital Library of Pre-Modern Chinese” by Donald Sturgeon at our 2015 Advancing Digital Scholarship workshop to learn about projects & pipelines! guides.nccjapan.org/2015harvardw...

How is US activity in Okinawa documented & can it be accessed? Okinawa Times Correspondent Jon Mitchell shares his experiences/methods in "Documenting US Operations in Okinawa: The Jon Mitchell Collection at Okinawa International University & Beyond" #NCCSpotlight guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

Interested in the global history of jazz & its connections to Japan? 🎷 This #NCCShowcase from Ayako Yoshimura (Chicago) shares that the Jazz Research Collection of Prof. E. Taylor Atkins is available! Explore the preliminary inventory of this exciting addition! www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findi...

Interested in global histories of medicine and technology? ⚕️ Archives like Nichibunken hold more than just Japanese sources! Explore their digitized archives of rare European medical books from 1508–1858 in the Noma Collection! shinku.nichibun.ac.jp/NOMA/new/ind...

How did our information specialists work to support researchers & students decades ago? In our 1991 newsletter, NCC introduced East Asian Scholars Electronic Help Desk (EASyHelp), an attempt to bring our digital & analog expertise together! 🖥️🗾 Read more here!: www.nccjapan.org/newsletters/...

It’s #InternationalArchaeologyDay! 😍 Please enjoy these delightful little bear-shaped clay objects, likely from the Final Jomon Period (~3,200-2,400 BCE). 🐻 Held by the Aomori Prefectural Archaeological Artifacts Research Center: jomon-japan.jp/archives#/as...

Scholars who use art catalogs for their research & teaching will want to revisit our #NCCSpotlight by Reiko Yoshimura & Kit Brooks introducing the history and goals of the Japan Art Catalog Project, which makes rare & hard to acquire art catalogs available! Seet: guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

Have you ever played kemari 蹴鞠? Today is Sports Day #スポーツの日 in Japan! So take a peek at an 1875 print depicting this classical game, Asukai Masanori Teaching Tokugawa Yoshimune to Play Kemari! By Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and held by LACMA: collections.lacma.org/node/191507

How can we tell histories of medicine beyond Western approaches? Today’s #NCCShowcase is a bibliographic entry by Wayne Tan (Hope College), historian of disability in Japan, introducing “Disability History outside of a Western Framework"! 🌏 www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/docu...

How do postcards capture historical moments & places? How can we “read” even the structure of their printing? 📮 Revisit our #NCCSpotlight by Tokiko Bazzell (Formerly University of Hawai’i’ at Manoa Library) on Hawai’i’s historical postcard collection to find out! guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

What goes into creating digital collections & how can we collaborate? At our 2017 digital scholarship workshop Victoria Bestor, Michaela Kelly, & Noriko Sugimori tackled these issues in “Creating Digital Collections: Working with Partners, Students, & Volunteers”! guides.nccjapan.org/torontodigit...

Did you know that the National Museum of Asian Art participates in the Japan Art Catalog project to make rare & hard-to-find art catalogs available to researchers? As of 2022 they hold 10.5k+ volumes! 🖼️😮📚 Learn more about the JAC and accessing these materials at: guides.nccjapan.org/japanartcata...

What is #IIIF? How does it work & how could our scholarship benefit? In this 2018 Digital Scholarship Workshop session Kiyonori Nagasaki (International Institute of Digital Humanities) & Satoru Nakamura (U Tokyo) explain the ins & outs of IIIF tech & applications! guides.nccjapan.org/c.php?g=8894...

Have you wondered how to go about regular kuzushiji learning & practice? 🖌️ One great way to start (and continue) is the Minna de Honkoku みんなで翻刻 project! Learn about their community for crowdsourcing transcription in this CDDP video introduction by Yuta Hashimoto! guides.nccjapan.org/cddp/video-s...

This is a friendly reminder that the application deadline for the 2026-2028 NIJL-NCC CDDP Digitization Grant Program is one month away! 🗓️ Application guidelines can be found on our site--deadline November 1! guides.nccjapan.org/cddp/nijl-nc...

Looking to globalize your approaches to history, gender, & art? 🗾 There are online resources that can help! Revisit our #NCCSpotlight by Carrie Cushman & Kelly McCormick: “Behind the Camera: Digital Interventions in the History of Japanese Women Photographers”! 📸 guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

What kind of information do researchers & students need before they head off to the archives? 🛫 Learn more from this talk & accompanying guide materials by Izumi Koide (Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation) & Kuniko McVey (Harvard Library) from our 2012 workshop! guides.nccjapan.org/c.php?g=3557...

It's a time for joyful bunnies! 🐇 This expression is joyful, right? 😅 Yesterday was #InternationalRabbitDay, so take a moment to appreciate this Imari dish from the 19th century of rabbits and pondweed. Held by the Tokyo National Museum: colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_i...

I didn't know about this collection. Very cool! The volumes digitized so far are available from UPenn Libraries' repository. colenda.library.upenn.edu?_=1759015365...

Where do the digital archives meet local history? Learn about our 2022-23 CDDP Video Award winners, The Film Cycle Project Team (Tokushima University), to learn about their work with over 1,000 vintage videos & photos from the ‘30s-‘80s! 🎬 guides.nccjapan.org/cddp/video-s...

Did you know that Penn Libraries received a donation of 1200+ early modern & modern illustrated Japanese books in recent years? 📖 The Tress Collection offers a wealth of rare Edo pubs! 🗾 Revisit this #NCCSpotlight by Julie Nelson Davis & Lynne Farrington for more! guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

How are you feeling as the fall arrives? This wild boar in autumn flowers and grasses c. 1800 is definitely telling us. 👀💦 Let’s a be a little more celebratory of Autumnal Equinox Day #秋分の日 as the colors turn! 🍂 This Mori Sosen painting held by LACMA: collections.lacma.org/node/215192

Ephemera like postcards can show us fascinating glimpses of the past. 📮 If you’re interested in the early 20th century, check out Nichibunken’s database of Japanese art exhibition postcards from the 1900s to the 1930s! Check out their pre-war materials at: tenrankai.nichibun.ac.jp/il/meta_pub/...

What paths to discovery can digital scholarship lead us down? 🔎 At our 2017 workshop Ryuta Komaki (Rikkyo University) provided insights in his talk “Thinking Beyond Digital ‘Scholarship,’” which you can view here! guides.nccjapan.org/torontodigit...

Today we're pleased to shine our #NCCSpecialist spotlight on Ayako Yoshimura, Japanese Studies Librarian at University of Chicago! Her career path highlights the dual roles many information specialists have as scholars and library experts. Read about her journey: guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

Those interested in Japanese Studies librarianship will be delighted to learn that University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hamilton Library has established a new training program for mentoring Japan subject librarians! Learn about this exciting new opportunity: www.hawaii.edu/news/2025/09...

When building a database on visual materials what considerations are there? Are there best practices? Revisit slides considering these issues from our 2015“Growing the East Asia Image Collection over a Decade” by Paul Barclay & Eric Luhrs (Lafayette College)! 💻 guides.nccjapan.org/2015harvardw...

Today is Japan's Respect for the Aged Day #敬老の日! If you’re a fan of noh/folklore, enjoy this 1920s painting by Kamisaka Sekka representing Takasago, the story of two ancient pines personified as a devoted elderly couple. 🌲 Held by Minneapolis Institute of Art: collections.artsmia.org/art/117762/n...

Today’s #NCCShowcase is a recent @aasasianstudies.bsky.social feature on Joanne Bernardi (Rochester University), who received a NEAC Grant to travel to Japan and work on her upcoming book: Films for the Living: The Cinema of Jūzō Itami! 🎬 www.asianstudies.org/grants-award...

Digital access is helpful, but could or should we be smelling, touching, or even tasting the archive? 👀👅 Revisit this #NCCSpotlight by Luciana Sanga to learn about materiality in the stacks & library collaborations while studying the 1930s magazine Fūzoku zasshi! guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

Where might technological innovations and changes to the information field take Japan Studies in the near future? 🗾➡️ As a part of our 30th anniversary event Yoshitaka Yamamoto reflected on the possibilities in “NCC 2.0: Envisioning the 4th Decade”! guides.nccjapan.org/30th-anniver...

Our Multimedia History Project records the origins of the Japan Studies librarianship & research field with insights from those who contributed to its founding! Listen to our 2020 interview with Patricia Steinhoff (Emeritus, Hawaii) on her decades in scholarship! guides.nccjapan.org/multimediahi...

Analog though it might have been, you can now practice classical kana with digital tools! 🖌️ Check out this video by the late X. Jie Yang (University of Calgary) for our CDDP video series “100 Classical Kana Words in Motion” to explore some of the possibilities! guides.nccjapan.org/cddp/video-s...

How can blended learning support students and bring interdisciplinarity to research and information services? In this talk from our 2012 Junior Japanese Studies Librarian Training Workshop Asako Yoshida (U Manitoba Libraries) discusses these issues and more! guides.nccjapan.org/c.php?g=3557...

How did Japanese textile makers document patterns & themes?💮👘 Art enthusiasts & makers will want to revisit our #NCCSpotlight by Hamish Todd (British Library) “Exquisite Patterns–Japanese Textile Design Books at the British Library” to see gorgeous guides! guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

If you’re interested in out-of-the-box tools for thinking digitally with texts, you’re not alone! Revisit this introductory session to Voyant by Molly Des Jardin from our 2017 “Doing Digital Scholarship in Japanese Studies” digital scholarship workshop! 💻📰 guides.nccjapan.org/torontodigit...

Today is the anniversary of the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. How did people reflect on and memorialize the trauma of such disasters? Explore these and more votive slips printed several years after the event, held by the University of Oregon. #関東大震災 oregondigital.org/catalog?f%5B...

If you’re looking for tools to help with the study of Japanese calligraphy, there are resources out there! 🖌️ You can check out our CDDP Video by Emily Li (Ritsumeikan U) introducing the Art Research Center’s Kuzushiji Transcription Support and Archiving System: guides.nccjapan.org/cddp/video-s...

How do organizations like the National Diet Library tackle issues of long-term preservation? Does anyone even know how to use a CD anymore? 💿👀 Read this month’s NDL newsletter to learn about their activities and other fascinating materials! www.ndl.go.jp/en/publicati...

Those interested in modern Japan and digital exhibitions will want to revisit our fascinating #NCCSpotlight by Ann Sherif (Oberlin) exploring histories of activist culture and Hiroshima in “Popular Protest in Postwar Japan: The Antiwar Art of Shikoku Gorō”! See: guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...

He may be chewing on your sandal, but he is still the goodest boy! It’s #InternationalDogDay, so it’s time to love this early 19th cen carving by Mitsunori.🐾🐕 Held by the The Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts: lapis.nichibun.ac.jp/zai/Detail?g...