Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University

The Art Research Center (ARC) at Ritsumeikan University was established in 1998. Since then, the ARC’s mission has been not only to conduct historical and social research and analyses of both tangible and intangible cultural properties such as visual and performing arts and craftsmanship, but also to record, organize, preserve and disseminate the research outcomes. With its history over a century, the university is the 3rd biggest private university in Japan in terms of student number. Based on the university’s comprehensive research competence in humanities and social sciences, the ARC has been using cutting-edge information technology to combine and/or integrate humanities and information science. As a research center of a Kyoto-based university, the ARC focuses on researching Japanese art and culture, including temporal arts such as performing arts and plays, traditional craftworks, print culture of ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints) and woodblock-printed books, and clothing and fashion culture of kimonos and their designs. We have been putting a great deal of effort into not only researching such Japanese art and culture, but also supporting artistic creations, disseminating art to share it with the general public for their appreciation, and developing educational programs to promote the understanding of the art and culture. Moreover, we have been forming collections of ukiyo-e, paintings, and traditional craftworks, as well as constructing databases of Japanese artworks which have been scattered around the world, by using the digital-archiving technology we have developed. Now, our collections and databases have constituted important research materials for Japanese art and culture. In the fiscal year of 2014, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, designated the ARC as a Joint Usage/Research Center. With the establishment of the Digital Archive Research Center for Japanese Cultural Resources, we intend to effectively serve as a hub for scholars and research organizations of Japanese Studies all over the world.