Kuzushiji and Premodern Japanese Studies: Learning Resources andArtificial Intelligence Initiatives
Based on Dr. Tarin Clanuwat’s presentation on July 23, 2020
Created by Bianca Chui, Undergraduate Assistant, The Centre of Japanese Research (CJR) at the
University of British Columbia
CJR Website: www.cjr.iar.ubc.ca | Twitter: @ubcCJR

Physical Resources
児玉幸多『くずし字用例辞典普及版』(dictionary [in red])https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%81%8F%E3%81%9A%E3%81%97%E5%AD%97%E7%94%A8%E4%BE%8B%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8-%E6%99%AE%E5%8F%8A%E7%89%88%E5%85%90%E7%8E%89-%E5%B9%B8%E5%A4%9A/dp/4490103336
児玉幸多『漢字くずし方辞典新装版』(kanji dictionary [in gold])
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4490109075/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_G9ufFb1QK1WRM
村山臥龍『草書のくずし方』(kanji)
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4544014190/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_yevfFb1V5PHTK
集兼築信行『一週間で読めるくずし字古今集・新古今』(hiragana)
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4473032663/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_HOwfFbQKKA34T

Digital Resources
Rank of character occurrences in 1 million characters
日本古典籍くずし字データセット 文字種（くずし字）一覧 (website) [in Japanese]
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/char-shape/unicode/
Mojizo: Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties
文簡・くずし字解読システム (website) [in Japanese]
https://mojizo.nabunken.go.jp/*There are PDF guides in English, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified
Chinese on the website.
English: https://mojizo.nabunken.go.jp/doc/legend_en.pdf

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Online Kuzushiji Dictionary: Historiographical Institute, University of Tokyo
電子くずし字字典: 東京大学史料編纂所 (website) [in Japanese]
http://wwwap.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ships/shipscontrollerSelect 電子くずし字字典データベース under 辞典・字典 (bottom rightcolumn)
KuLa: Kuzushiji Learning App (mobile application) [in Japanese]
App Store (iOS):https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/%E3%81%8F%E3%81%9A%E3%81%97%E5%AD%97%E5%AD%A6%E7%BF%92%E6%94%AF%E6%8F%B4%E3%82%A2%E3%83%97%E3%83%AAku
la/id1076911000
Google Play (Android):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=yuta.hashimoto.kula&hl=ja
100 Classical Kana Words in Motion (website) [in Japanese]
http://people.ucalgary.ca/~xyang/kana/kana.html
An animated guide to writing kuzushiji using primary documents, with links to
the full original digital facsimiles at various archives, as well as a transcription
and translation of each word.
Kuzushiji Kaidoku Kōza Text Ichiran (Komonjo Kaidoku)
くずし字解読講座テキスト一覧(古文書解読) (website) [in Japanese]
https://www.tosyokan.pref.shizuoka.jp/contents/history/kuzushi.html
Full text of a series of essays on kuzushiji and archival documents, provided inPDF format, from Shizuoka Prefectural Central Library.
Waseda University: Reading Kuzushiji (lecture videos) [in Japanese]
http://course-channel.waseda.jp/subject/contents
Waseda University offers video course instruction on kuzushiji by Professor
Nobuyuki Kanechiku in thirteen videos.
*Course Details:
Teacher： MUNAKATA, Kazushige
Class name：Reading Kuzushiji
Year：2020

others/KANECHIKU, Nobuyuki

01.「第一講 変体仮名を読もう（１）第一章 変体仮名とは何か？」
02.「第一講 変体仮名を読もう（１）第二章 古筆切を読む（１）」03.「第二講 変体仮名を読もう（２）第二章 古筆切を読む（２）」04.「第二講 変体仮名を読もう（２）第三章 明治の教科書を読む」
05.「第三講 変体仮名を読みながら（１）第二章 極札（伝一条兼良筆源氏物語切１）」
06.「第三講 変体仮名を読みながら（１）第三章 ミセケチ（伝一条兼良筆源氏物語切２）」
07.「第四講 変体仮名を読みながら（２）第二章 声点（伝一条兼良筆源氏物語切３）」

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Kuzushiji Learning Resources Guide by The Centre for Japanese Research at UBC
08.「第四講 変体仮名を読みながら（２）第三章 ツレ（伝一条兼良筆源氏物語切４）」
09.「第四講 変体仮名を読みながら（２）第四章 伝冷泉為相筆源氏物語切」
10.「第五講 書写形式のさまざま（１）第二章 物語の書写形式」
11.「第五講 書写形式のさまざま（１）第三章 歌集の書写形式」
12.「第六講 書写形式のさまざま（２）第二章 伊勢物語－集付と勘物」
13.「第六講 書写形式のさまざま（２）第三章 新古今集－選者名注記ほか」*Note: If you cannot play the video in Google Chrome, you can play it by changing your settings
with the following steps.
1. Open the video playback page in Google Chrome, and click the symbol circled with an eye (i)at the left end of the address bar.
2. There is a Flash item in the pull-down menu, so select "Always allow this site".
3. After refreshing the screen or switching screens with the F5 key, the movie will play correctly.
Komonjo Navi 古文書なび:古文書解読支援サイト (website) [in Japanese]
http://komonjo.rokumeibunko.com/
古文書なび provides a basic introduction to kuzushiji and komonjo reading,including books and guides useful for beginners, explanations about thestructure of premodern documents and their writing styles, materials forbeginners, and some basic practice materials such as calligraphic cards of theHyakunin isshū.
古筆 仮名 bot @detchobon (Twitter account) [in Japanese]
https://twitter.com/detchobon
Photos of easy hentaigana examples for some quick reading practice withtranslation.
仮名の古筆の画像と釈文と原字とをつぶやく。字体の解説も。
粘葉本和漢朗詠集・伏見院宸翰筑後切（ColBase より切抜）・小倉色紙（『集古十種』より）・和歌体十種（ColBase より切抜）

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Machine Learning and Kuzushiji Recognition Models
Kuzushiji Dataset (Created by NIJL and CODH)
日本古典籍くずし字データセット (website) [in Japanese]
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/char-shape/*Created from 44 books from Edo period. (Mostly woodblock printed). With over1 million characters and over 4300 character types
Kuzushiji Single Character Recognition (KogumaNet)
AI くずし字認識（一文字）(website) [in Japanese]
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/char-shape/app/single-mobilenet/
Kuzushiji Recognition Viewer: IIIF Curation Viewer
くずし字認識ビューア (website) [in both Japanese and English]
English: http://codh.rois.ac.jp/char-shape/app/icv-kuzushiji/?lang=en
Japanese: http://codh.rois.ac.jp/char-shape/app/icv-kuzushiji/?lang=ja*Provide KuroNet Service from other website
1. Check if the images are in IIIF format.
2. Drag the IIIF Manifest URI into KuroNet Viewer
Kuzushiji Multiple Character Recognition (KuroNet)
KuroNet くずし字認識サービス (website) [in Japanese]
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/kuronet/

KuroNet Service: CODH Booklist (3126 books) 日本古典籍データセット(website) [in Japanese]
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/pmjt/
Digital Orientalist: Tutorial on How to Use KuroNet by James H. Morris (website) [in English]
https://digitalorientalist.com/2020/02/18/cursive-japanese-and-ocr-using-kuronet/

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KuroNet Papers
KuroNet: Pre-Modern Japanese Kuzushiji Character Recognition with Deep Learning(ICDAR, Sep 2019) (open access) [in English]
Tarin Clanuwat, Alex Lamb, Asanobu Kitamoto
https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.09433
KuroNet: Regularized Residual U-Nets for End-to-End Kuzushiji Character Recognition (Springer
Nature Computer Science Special Issue on Document Analysis and Recognition, May 2020)(open access) [in English]
Alex Lamb, Tarin Clanuwat & Asanobu Kitamoto
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42979-020-00186-z

List of digital libraries in IIIF format
Database of Premodern Japanese Works, NIJL
新日本古典籍総合データベース, 国文学研究資料館 (website)[in both Japanese and English]
English: https://kotenseki.nijl.ac.jp/?ln=en
Japanese: https://kotenseki.nijl.ac.jp/?ln=ja
Digital Collections of Keio University Library
慶應義塾大学メディアセンターデジタルコレクション (website)[in both Japanese and English]
English: http://dcollections.lib.keio.ac.jp/en
Japanese: http://dcollections.lib.keio.ac.jp/ja
National Diet Library Digital Collections 国立国会図書館デジタルコレクション(website) [in both Japanese and English]
English: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/?__lang=en
Japanese: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/?__lang=ja
CODH Premodern Japanese Text Dataset 日本古典籍データセット(website) [in Japanese]
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/pmjt/

Other Recommended IIIF Sites by CODH おすすめ IIIF サイト (website) [in Japanese]
http://codh.rois.ac.jp/software/iiif-curation-viewer/resource/***Note: Waseda Kotenseki Database is not in IIIF format.

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Resources Guide
UBC Library: Japanese Kuzushiji & Hentaigana Resources by Tomoko Kitayama Yen(website) [in English]
https://guides.library.ubc.ca/kuzushiji
What can I do with a B.A. in Japanese Studies?: Kuzushiji Reading Resources by Paula Curtis(website) [in English]
https://shinpaideshou.com/2016/02/17/kuzushiji-reading-resources/
Digital Orientalist: Apps for Learning Cursive Japanese by James H. Morris (website) [in English]
https://digitalorientalist.com/2018/07/12/apps-for-learning-cursive-japanese/

Kuzushiji/Hentaigana Initiatives
Crowdsourced Online Transcription Project: Minna de Honkoku みんなで翻刻 (website)[in both Japanese and English]
https://honkoku.org/*Features transcription editor, transcription timeline and help from AI models**Click [A/文] button on the top menu bar (between the search box and Twittericon) to switch between English or Japanese interface
University of Cambridge Summer School in Japanese Early Modern Palaeography
https://wakancambridge.com/
University of Pennsylvania Kuzushiji Reading Group Summer Workshop
https://pennkuzushiji.wordpress.com/
University of Chicago Kuzushiji Summer Workshop
https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/kuzushiji/

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Collections Related to Japanese Studies at UBC*UBC Collection is IIIF-compatible. To select IIF url to use in external IIIF-viewer, click on“Embed” tab below the image you would like to use.
One Hundred Poets | 百人一首 (website) [in English]
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/hundred
Originating from the personal collection of Professor Joshua Mostow of the UBC
Department of Asian Studies, this digital collection consists at present of 74
books and 20 different card sets relating to the poetry anthology Hyakunin Isshu
百人一首 (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, hereafter HNIS), edited by thefamous poet and scholar, Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241) in the 1230s. It isunquestionably the most famous poetry anthology in the Japanese tradition.
Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era (website) [in English]
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/tokugawa
UBC Library's Rare Books and Special Collections holds one of the world's largest
collections of maps and guidebooks of the Japanese Tokugawa period, ca. 1600–
1868. The collection varies in both format and size: items range from small
single-sheet maps to more than thirty square feet, and also include a ceramic
plate, a woodblock, and maps in scroll format.
Meiji at 150 Collection (website) [in English]
https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/meiji150
The Meiji at 150 collection consists of visual images that were produced
primarily in Japan during the Meiji period (1868-1912). They include 21 Meiji-era
woodblock prints, 1 hand-painted kimono book, a 7-volume book on the Ainu, 1
tourist album, 2 Japanese-Canadian booklets, and 41 photographs from the John
Cooper Robinson collection.
Meiji at 150 Project (website) [in English]
https://meijiat150.arts.ubc.ca/The Meiji at 150 Project is comprised of several series of events and projects.
- The Meiji at 150 Lecture Series- The Meiji at 150 Workshop Series- The Meiji at 150 Digital Teaching Resource- The Meiji at 150 Podcast Series hosted by Tristan GrunowPage 7 of 7