As part of UBC Library’s ongoing efforts to deliver transformative teaching and learning experiences, librarians and archivists are finding unique ways to support courses taught across faculties and departments at UBC.
“Reading classical Japanese cursive script, a pre-modern style of writing, is both a challenge and an art, requiring training and time,” says Tomoko Kitayama Yen, Japanese Studies librarian at UBC Asian Library. “Only about 0.01% of the Japanese population can read the cursive script fluently, and it is an important educational step for students studying classical Japanese literature.”
Kitayama Yen hosted an instructional session in January 2022 for students taking ASIA 531A Classical Japanese Literature, that would introduce them to new digital tool, known as the ARC Kuzushiji Transcription Support and Archiving System, developed by the Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan.
As the system presents example documents of classical Japanese writing digitally and a student attempts to read and review these documents, notes Kitayama Yen, the student can look at deciphering suggestions, generated by Artificial Intelligence-enabled system, supporting those new to reading Japanese cursive script.
Working with the class instructor and other pre-modern Japanese studies scholars at UBC, Kitayama Yen hopes to use the system to curate a database of classical writing examples from the UBC Library collection to provide the students with further opportunities to practice and explore.
Learn more about teaching and learning at UBC Library.
This project is part of UBC Library’s strategic direction to advance research, learning and scholarship.
Learn more about our Strategic Framework.
