Support Projects for Enhancing Function
Building a Digital Archive
for Kabuki and Ningyo Joruri Magazines
Fiscal 2017
The Theatre Museum’s collection of theater magazines is abundant, both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this project, we are attempting to preserve these precious materials as well as make it easier to access and view them. With this dual objective in mind, we are continuing with the work of digitizing the materials and making them available for viewing. Continuing our efforts from 2016, we created digital transcriptions of the 1918-1925 issues of the kabuki publication Shin Engei. Alongside this digitization process, we inspected the increasingly deteriorated materials and repaired some of them. In this way, we balanced the goal of enhancing access to the materials through digital transcription with that of carefully preserving the physical materials. After digitizing many journals and pamphlets, we have developed strategies for digitizing content without harming the physical materials. Building on this knowhow, we reexamined the dilapidated state of the materials we selected last year ー Shin Engei and Opera ー and made preparations for launching the content online in 2018. We believe that digitizing these precious theater-related materials will expand the opportunities for accessing and applying the Theatre Museum’s materials and, thus, enliven research in this area.
Digitization of Shin Engei