FROM “Devices for thinking about the Past” (Zwicker, 2009)._TOWARD “devices for thinking about the Digital Archive” _.

Saitō Gesshin, Shinobugusa, 1843
Images retrieved from: The University of Cambridge,Cambridge University Digital Library - (CC BY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

How can we further scientific engagement with Edo Period Scrapbooks?

Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/ndljp_en/status/1359386626238021634

Interfaces enhance engagement with Digital Arhchives

Retrieved from: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/9/1/000205/000205.html

Presentation’s Outline:

First Part: Engaging Complexity
1. Defining Edo Period Scrapbooks
2. Edo Period Scrapbooks as Personal Archives
3. The case of Shinobugusa

Presentation’s Outline:

Second Part: Communicating Complexity
1. Generous interfaces and Information Visualization
2. Visual exploration of Shinobugusa: Thumbnails, Map,Timeline

1.1 Defining Scrapbooks: The Textual Production
1.

Retrieved from: Carol Yepes/Moment/GettyImages

1.1 Defining Scrapbooks: The Textual Production- Collage and assemblage of various materials- Marginalia and notes- Think visually- Personal archives- Collection of ephemera and the everyday
Saitō Gesshin, Shinobugusa, (p. 15), 1843 Images retrieved from: TheUniversity of Cambridge, Cambridge University Digital Library - (CCBY-NC 3.0) http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

1.2 Edo Period Scrapbook: A Golden Age of Epehemeras- Advertising material- Handbills- Broadsheets- Theatre Programmes- Playbill- Satirical pamphlet- Ranking lists (番付)
- Talismanic prints- Boardgames prints- MapsAdvertisement of a candle shop, Fumoto no Chiri, (p.20), 1828.
Image retrieved from: The University of Cambridge, Cambridge
University Digital Library - (CC BY-NC 3.0)
https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-FJ-01000-00012/1

1.2 Edo Period Scrapbooks: Time Capsule form Edo

Playbills, Ephemera, and the Historical Imagination in
Nineteenth-Century Japan
Jonathan Zwicker
The Journal of Japanese Studies
Vol. 35, No. 1 (Winter, 2009), pp. 37-59 (23 pages)
Published By: The Society for Japanese Studies
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27756617

eas milan

1.2 Edo Period Scrapbooks: “The Fear of Effacement”

Playbills, Ephemera, and the Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Japan
Jonathan Zwicker
The Journal of Japanese Studies
Vol. 35, No. 1 (Winter, 2009), p. 40
Published By: The Society for Japanese Studies
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27756617
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27756617

eas milan

1.2 Edo Period Scrapbooks: MATTER!
1. Useful materials to access daily life in Edo.
2. “Documents of the way culture wasdocumented” (Zwicker, 2009)
3. Embodied Media→ Rethinking ways to access complexity

Timoty Clark ed. (Chicago: Art Institute ofChicago, 1994)

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity

Saitō Gesshin, Shinobugusa, 1843
Images retrieved from: The University of Cambridge,Cambridge University Digital Library - (CC BY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity
Author:Saitō Gesshin (1804-1878)

Translated Titles:

Materials which may help us remember past events(literal translation: grass of memory)

Date of Creation:
Extent:Binding:1843 (天保14)
1 jiku 軸 Leaf height: 290 mm, width: 5410 mm.
Kansu-bon 巻子本 (scroll)

Author of record: Koyama Noboru.
Information retrieved: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity
Saitō Gesshin,
Shinobugusa, 1843
Images retrieved from:The University ofCambridge, Cambridge
University Digital
Library(CC BY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/vi
ew/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1● Shiba Kōkan. 1811. Tsurezure Gusa. 74th dan.
● Saitō Gesshin. 1843. Preface of Shinobugusa.
● Unknown Artist. Sumida Gawa Spring Landscape. Unkown date.
● Nakamura Kanzaburō 11th. 1804. (illustrated by Torii Kyōnaga).
Playbill and Prologue for the Nakamuraza Kotobuki Kyōgen (plays: Saruwaka, Kadomatsu). Edo: Maruyama.

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity

TOTAL: 33 Items
Known Publisher: 8--entratainments--

Performing Arts: 16
Disaster Account: 11
Foreingers: 3Medicine: 1
Literature: 1Arts: 1

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity“The aforementioned items are included (Hayashi Nozomu & Peter Kornicki: Early Japanese Books in Cambridge University Library: aCatalogue of the Aston, Satow and Von Siebold Collections)”
Information retrieved: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity

List of Rescue hut's locations afterthe Tenpō 5th Great Fire. 1835
Saitō Gesshin, Shinobugusa, 1843
Images retrieved from: The University ofCambridge, Cambridge University Digital Library(CC BY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity

Suguroku Board Advertisment of the New
Play: "Hitori Tabi's 53 stations" 1840
Saitō Gesshin, Shinobugusa, 1843
Images retrieved from: The University ofCambridge, Cambridge University Digital Library(CC BY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity

Pamphlet depicting the Ryūkyan
Envoys Parade. 1806
Saitō Gesshin, Shinobugusa, 1843
Images retrieved from: The University ofCambridge, Cambridge University Digital
Library(CC BY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

1.3 Shinobugusa: Engaging Complexity

Tickets for entertainments in Edo.1814 ca.
Saitō Gesshin, Shinobugusa, 1843 Images retrieved from: The University ofCambridge, Cambridge University Digital Library- (CC BY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

2.1 Shinobugusa: Comunicating Complexity

How can we enhance discoverability of Edo Period
Scrapbooks?

2.1 Digital Archives’s Interfaces can enhance discoverability !

Retrieved from: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/9/1/000205/000205.html

2.1 Generous Interfaces and Information Visualization:- Digital Archives’s interfaces should overcome the physical limitsof access to informations.
- Overcoming punctual search engines! (Whitelaw, 2015)- Provide browsing interfaces → exploratory search!
- Contamination with Information Visualization! (Mauri &Ciuccarelli, 2015)

2.2 Visualizing Shinobugusa: Thumbnails - Provide Rich Overview

Saitō Gesshin,
Shinobugusa, 1843

278Images retrieved
from: TheUniversity ofCambridge,Cambridge
University Digital
Library - (CCBY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.u
k/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

2.2 Visualizing Shinobugusa: Map - Provide Context

Saitō Gesshin,
Shinobugusa, 1843

3Images retrieved
from: The
University ofCambridge,Cambridge
University Digital
Library - (CCBY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.u
k/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

2.3 Visualizing Shinobugusa: Timeline - Show Don’t Ask

Pamphlet depicting
the Ryūkyan Envoys
Parade.

Saitō Gesshin,Shinobugusa, 1843
Images retrieved from:The University ofCambridge, Cambridge
University Digital
Library - (CC BY-NC3.0)15

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/vie
w/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

1806

Conclusions:
1. Edo Period Scrapbooks Matter!
2. Scrapbooks as devices for re-thinking to the Digital
Archive’s interfaces!

ご清聴ありがとうございました。
Thank you for your kind attention!
.
Illustrated by Torii Kyōnaga. Prologue for theNakamuraza Kotobuki Kyōgen

I am available for any inquire

Saitō Gesshin, Shinobugusa, 1843Images retrieved from: The University ofCambridge, Cambridge University Digital
Library(CC BY-NC 3.0)
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-FJ-01000-00016/1

Luca Domenico Artuso
artuso@jfroma.org