{"id":5341,"date":"2006-07-19T10:49:01","date_gmt":"2006-07-19T15:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.froginawell.net\/japan\/2006\/07\/japanese-historical-text-initiative-at-uc-berkeley\/"},"modified":"2006-07-19T10:49:01","modified_gmt":"2006-07-19T15:49:01","slug":"japanese-historical-text-initiative-at-uc-berkeley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/2006\/07\/japanese-historical-text-initiative-at-uc-berkeley\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Historical Text Initiative at UC Berkeley"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent message<\/a> on H-Japan from Yuko Okubo at UC Berkeley announced an interesting online resource: The Japanese Historical Text Initiative<\/a> Here is a part of that announcement which outlines some of the materials already available:<\/p>\n

The Japanese Historical Text Initiative (JHTI) is a rapidly expanding
\ndatabase made up of historical texts written during the last 1292 years.
\nThe original version of every paragraph in every text is cross-tagged with
\nits English translation, making it possible for any researcher to see, on
\nthe same screen, both the original and English translation of any word or
\nphrase appearing in any JHTI text. <\/p>\n

The texts now included are of the following types: <\/p>\n

Ancient chronicles. These were compiled by officials of the Imperial
\nCourt in compliance with edicts handed down by occupants of the throne.
\nThe three oldest chronicles have been placed on JHTI: (1) the Kojiki
\n(completed in 712 CE) and cross-tagged with its English translation by
\nDonald L. Philippi, (2) the Nihon Shoki (completed in 720) with its
\ntranslation by W. G. Aston, and (3) the Shoku Nihongi (covering 697 to
\n791) with its translation by J. B. Snellen. <\/p>\n

Ancient gazetteers. These texts were submitted by provincial officials in
\ncompliance with an Imperial edict handed down during the first half of the
\n8th century. Only a few remain. We are inserting on JHTI the original of
\nthe most complete extant gazetteer, the Izumo no Kuni Fudoki (submitted in
\n733), and linking it with Michiko Aoki’s translation. Remaining portions
\nof other gazetteers will be added and linked to translations by Professor
\nAoki. <\/p>\n

Ancient religo-civil code. In 927, at the close of the Great Reform period
\nthat began in 645, a comprehensive compilation of religious and civil law
\n(the Engi Shiki) was submitted to the Imperial court. The first 10 books
\nare made up of religious (Kami) law. All other books are devoted to civil
\nlaw. The originals of the 10 Kami books have been placed on JHTI and
\ncross-tagged with Felicia Gressitt Bock’s translation.<\/p>\n

Medieval stories. After the Great Reform period, and during early years of
\nthe emerging feudal age, the most valuable historical texts were stories
\nwritten about what was said and done by powerful leaders of aristocratic
\nand military clans. Three are being placed on JHTI: (1) the Okagami
\n(covering the years 866 to 1027) with the translation by Helen Craig
\nMcCullough; (2) the Eiga Monogatari (covering the years 794 to 1185) with
\nthe translation by William H. & Helen Craig McCullough; and (3) the
\nTaiheiki (completed around 1371) with the Helen Craig McCullough
\ntranslation. Other translated texts of this type will be added later. <\/p>\n

Medieval and early-modern interpretive histories. Between 1219 and 1712,
\nthree great interpretive histories were written, mirroring the religious
\nand political interests of their authors. The originals and translations
\nof two are being placed on JHTI: (1) the Gukansho (completed in 1219) has
\nbeen linked with the Delmer M. Brown and Ichiro Ishida translation, and
\n(2) the Jinno Shotoki (completed in 1339) with the H. Paul Varley
\ntranslation. The third history of this type, the Tokushi Yoron (completed
\nin 1712), will soon be cross-tagged and inserted with the Joyce Ackroyd
\ntranslation. <\/p>\n

The Japanese state and Imperial Shinto. After the Meiji Restoration of
\n1868, and in response to increasing pressure from Western powers, the
\nJapanese state adopted reforms in all areas of public life, including
\nreligious life. After World War II the government collected and published
\nimportant religious orders issued between 1868 and 1945. This is entitled
\nMeiji Igo Shukyo Kankei Horei Ruisan (Collection of Religious Orders
\nIssued since the Beginning of Meiji) and it is being placed on JHTI, and
\nis being linked with translations by Brown and Okubo. In 1937, the
\nJapanese government published and distributed its official interpretation
\nof Imperial Shinto. Entitled Kokutai no Hongi (Principles of Nation-Body)
\nthis has been placed on JHTI and cross-tagged with the English translation
\nby John Owen Gauntlett. <\/p>\n

Scriptures of Japan’s New Religions. After Japan was forced to adopt a
\nconstitution that freed religion from state control, numerous New
\nReligions emerged and flourished. The strongest two have amassed 10
\nmillion or more members. Their teachings are rooted in the Lotus Sutra
\n(Hokke-kyo) and this Sutra, thought to be the earliest of the Mahayana
\nscriptures, will be placed on JHTI and cross-tagged with the English
\ntranslation by Banno Kato et al and revised by W. L. Soothill and William
\nSchiffer et al. The Ofudesaki written by the founder of Tenri-kyo will
\nalso be added, and linked with the translation by Iwao P. Hino.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is an exciting project and I hope it continues to develop, adding material and ironing out problems as it does. I have only given the site a quick look but a few quick observations: <\/p>\n

1) Searching some of the materials requires obtaining a password, which apparently is available from one of the site administrators. <\/p>\n

2) There is a fascinating “Frequency of Appearance” feature which allows you to search a single or in all of the texts for the frequency of certain words. <\/p>\n

3) The design of the website still needs some work. The site uses frames, which is fine, but the encoding is not set in the HEAD tag for some of the files, which renders the Japanese characters wrong in some cases unless the visitor manually chooses the correct encoding in their browser (example: their logsel.cgi<\/a> file produces files without encoding, which is just lazy programming) or has the default encoding set to the appropriate Japanese encoding. <\/p>\n

4) Some of the search pages still need work, as well as the browse function. For example, browsing the Kojiki lists the language as “Japanese and English” but only the English appears except in the footnotes. <\/p>\n

5) Some links on the site are still broken (the search page for nihon shoki<\/a> was broken at the time of writing this post)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent message on H-Japan from Yuko Okubo at UC Berkeley announced an interesting online resource: The Japanese Historical Text Initiative Here is a part of that announcement which outlines some of the materials already available: The Japanese Historical Text Initiative (JHTI) is a rapidly expanding database made up of historical texts written during the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[95,119,200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","category-english","category-web-sites"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9yoH3-1o9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}