Archival Collections Online
Primary sources can be many things: from newspapers' article from the past, historical documents, correspondence, diaries to government or organizational records. Below is a selection of resources where you can start your research!
Digital Archives
- Japan Center for Asian Historical RecordsPart of the National Archives of Japan.
- Meiji Japan This link opens in a new windowMeiji Japan digital collection comes from the Peabody Essex Museum. The digital collection contains unique manuscript material relating to Edward S Morse (1838-1925), including correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and more.
- Hiroshima ArchiveA pluralistic digital archive that tells the reality of Hiroshima atomic bomb
- We Shall Never Forget 忘れない 3.11.15:20 (2011)A 3.11 digital archive created by the Iwate Nippo Newspaper.
- Japan Disasters Digital Archive (Harvard University)A collection for archived materials from all over the web, individuals’ testimonials, tweets, prominently including content from international partners who are building digital repositories about the disasters.
- NDL Web Archiving ProjectThis project mission is to web archive websites of the national, prefectural, and municipal governments, including those of prefectures, designated cities, cities, and towns as well as committees for municipal mergers, independent administrative corporations, semi-governmental corporations or agencies, universities, events, online periodicals, and similar sites.
Images and Sound Databases
- Cultural Heritage Online 文化遺産オンラインPhotos of Japanese cultural properties. Can be searched by location, periods, subjects and types of cultural property.
- Fine Prints: Japanese, pre-1915A selection of digitized woodblock prints and drawings located at the Library of Congress. The images date from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, by such artists as Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi, Sadahide, and Yoshiiku.
- Database of illustrations of Modern FolkloreIt contains the images of all pages of ezoshi, or illustrated story books from the Edo period in the Nichibunken collection.
- ARTstor This link opens in a new windowRegistration: ARTstor requires users to create an account and login before images can be downloaded. Use the links at upper right of the ARTstor site.
ARTstor contains digital images with accompanying data, as well as software tools to enable researchers to use the images actively. The database allows searching and browsing of images from a wide range of cultures and time periods, focusing on but not limited to the arts. ARTstor is designed to enhance teaching, learning, and scholarship in art history and many other disciplines. - Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Art Online allows you to search the vast content of Grove Art Online and Oxford art reference in one location. Users can also choose to view biographies, subject entries, or images when searching or browsing. There are plenty of images related to Japanese art available in this database.
- Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings This link opens in a new windowProduced in collaboration with the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive – a world centre for the study of Ethnomusicology – the content within this collection gives access to the cultural and social lives of the source communities represented within the recordings, allowing users a unique insight into the musical traditions of these communities. This collection therefore allows for the study of cultural identity, social norms, religion and ritual, and gender roles, as well as many other themes.
News Databases
- Asahi Kikuzo II Visual 朝日聞蔵IIヴジュアル This link opens in a new windowAsahi Kikuzo II Visual is one of the largest on-line newspaper database in Japan, containing over 8,000,000 articles. The database includes four sections:
Asahi Shinbun newspaper: 1945-present AERA weekly magazine: May 1988-present Shukan Asahi weekly magazine (news section only): April 2000-present Historical Photo Archive : 1930-1945. (10,000 pieces of valuable historical photographs) - Koseisha Zasshi Kiji Sakuin Shusei: Complete Database for Japanese Magazine and Periodicals from the Meiji Era to the Present This link opens in a new windowIndexes Japanese periodical articles published from 1868 to present time, including local periodicals not present in other indexes and those published in former Japanese colonies.
- Rafu Shimpo Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowThe Rafu Shimpo (羅府新報, L.A. Japanese Daily News) is the longest running Japanese American newspaper in the United States. The paper began in 1903 supporting the small but growing Japanese community in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles, California.The Rafu Shimpo rests squarely at the scholarly intersection of Japanese history and the Japanese-American émigré community—especially in California, with its unique coverage of news, community history, and announcements of births, marriages, and deaths.
- Foreign Office Files For Japan This link opens in a new windowThis collection provides significant insight into the events between First World War victory and Second World War defeat, crucial to understanding the political journey of Japan during this period. Topics covered include ultra-nationalism and the Japanese agenda of imperial dominance in the Far East, employment and social conditions in a time of global economic instability, and the ‘Great Kanto Earthquake’ of 1923 which flattened Tokyo, and so on.