UBC Library has been named as the successful recipient of a Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO) grant to support the conservation and digitization of select Premodern Japanese materials in UBC Asian Library’s collections.
TIFO is a non-profit, grant-making organization dedicated to promoting an enhanced international understanding of Japan through international exchanges, while contributing to local and global community development. UBC has previously received TIFO grant funding for several other projects, including the digitization of a rare collection of World War II-era kamishibai propaganda plays in 2021, and the One Hundred Poets project in 2014 and 2015, both of which were collaborations between UBC Library and the UBC Department of Asian Studies.
“I feel incredibly excited and very honoured that the library is receiving the Toshiba International Foundation Grant for this year. UBC Library’s Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era collection has been digitized and used all over the world, but our [Japanese] rare book collection has been somewhat hidden and under-utilized,” says Tomoko Kitayama Yen, Japanese Studies Librarian at UBC Asian Library.
With this grant, the library will be able to provide necessary conservation and preservation treatment for these materials, working with the team at the library’s Conservation Space, to safeguard these rare works for many years to come. The materials will then be expertly scanned at the Digitization Centre and added to the Japanese Special Collection in UBC Open Collections.
“It has been my cherished dream to have [these materials] digitized and made openly accessible for [scholars] interested in traditional Japanese art, design, literature, religions, and popular culture,” adds Kitayama Yen.
“These types of projects could not be completed without external funding such as the TIFO grant, yet they offer so much value to our collections. Once completed, and once made available to our students, faculty and community members, we will struggle to imagine these rare items hidden away,” says Shirin Eshghi Furuzawa, Head of UBC Asian Library.
Unlike previous digitized Japanese collections that follow a theme, the Japanese Special Collection covers a broad range of topics, and includes fictional stories and illustrated material, notes Furuzawa. “We expect scholars and students here at UBC, in Japan and elsewhere to use these works within many different fields, and we also expect that community members will enjoy looking through the digitized collection and will find something of interest regardless of Japanese-language expertise.”
The project is currently on track to be completed by Spring 2025.
Learn more about UBC Library’s most recently acquired rare Japanese materials.