Ethnography and Folklore

The Queer Japan Web Archive aims to preserve websites created by non-profit Japanese organizations which research, advocate for, support, and provide services to LGBTQ communities.

It contains the images of all pages of ezoshi, or illustrated story books from the Edo period in the Nichibunken collection.

Islamic Monuments in India: Photographic Database is an output from a research expedition to India. The photos capture scenes from across the country, however most images focus on Delhi. It was ordered both by cities of place and by types of building.

Kyoto Festivals and Customs consists of a two-volume album of hand paintings that depict Kyoto’s annual festivals and customs during the pre-WWII era. Each painting accompanies a detailed description of the subject.

The Asia-Pacific Database on Intangible Cultural Heritage contains information about traditional performing arts including music, dance, theatre, puppet theatre, and others. It mainly provides descriptions and photographs; some video clips are also available.

The Meiji and Taisho Eras in Photographs highlights scenery from the last decade of the nineteenth century to the early decades of the twentieth century from Tokyo and Kansai. Both count 500 and 400 items, respectively.

The East Asia Image Collection, Lafayette College presents digitized contemporary postcards, photographs, and slides which showcase from Japan’s colonial expansion era to occupation era, including China, Korea, Japan, and Indonesia, Colonial Taiwan, and Manchuria (it particularly highlights these

The Japanese Folklore Database from the Inada Koji Collection, National Museum of Ethnology offers a summary and catalogue of the collection. The collection comprises recordings of folklores throughout the country. The database offers a catalogue and summary of each recording.

Chronology of Clothing Culture in Japan: 1868–1945 highlights the changes in fashion from ethnic style to western style clothing. The collection contains data as well as images.

The Digital Archive of Japan’s 2011 Disasters, run by the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, focuses on preserving and sharing the memory of the disasters. It collects online records, blog articles, messages on twitter, and multimedia works connected to the disaster.