About This Digital Archive
The Center for Northeast Asian Studies established the Digital Archive of Northeast Asian Studies (DANA) in 2021. It contains digital content related to Northeast Asia, including manuscripts, documents, photographs, video, datasets, and much more. Academia traditionally emphasizes the publication of research results in journals or books as being key for knowledge exchange. A minority of researchers have devoted their energies into making independent databases available to the general public. Their initiatives benefit from the proliferation of digital technologies that allows for an increase in the exchange, forms, and provision of information over the past decade. Eclectic research materials and related information, some of which were previously unpublished due to technical reasons, have become relatively easier to share among various stakeholders. New media also create opportunities to widen area studies by offering new ways of attracting and integrating researchers from different backgrounds. To this effect, DANA has been conceived to provide, salvage, preserve, access, and reuse any kind of material and information that may contribute to Northeast Asian Studies. It will potentially link to other related digital achieves and heritages within and outside Tohoku University. We believe that DANA will become a collaborative space/tool for citizens, researchers, students, and policymakers interested in Northeast Asia. (March 31, 2021)
About CNEAS
The Center for Northeast Asian Studies (CNEAS) is the largest university-based research institute in its field in Japan. Based at Tohoku University, Japan’s third oldest imperial university, CNEAS was founded in 1996 as an independent institution devoted to the area study of Northeast Asia which includes China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia, as well as Siberia and the Far East of Russia. The aim of CNEAS is to take the initiative in international, cross-cutting area studies and produce unique research methodologies. Faculty specializing in the humanities, social sciences, natural science and engineering work together to form joint, collaborative research projects.
Collection
An Islamic Sacred Site and Epitaphs in the Southern Urals
This image database offers pictures of headstones and epitaphs in the “Ak-zirat” cemetery, containing the mausoleum of Huseyn-Bek, and located in the raion of Chishmy, which lies about 55 km west of the city of Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia. It contains pictures taken during a preliminary research visit on September 7, 2019 as well as pictures of the epitaphs photographed on the following day, September 8. Participants in the exploration on September 7-8, 2019 were IMAMATSU Yasushi, ISOGAI Masumi, Marsil N. FARKHSHATOV, Ramil M. BULGAKOV, and Evgenii V. RUSLANOV. Tatʹiana K. SURINA, a scientific photographer, photographed the epitaphs.
Tohoku University Department of Archaeology Digital Archive
This digital archive is developed to extend the accessibility to archaeological remains collected by the Tohoku University Archaeology Laboratory, as well as records obtained mainly during excavations.
Visual Database for Southeast China Areal Studies
This is a visual database of ethnographic data on the social and cultural custom of Chinese in southeast coastal regions including Hong Kong and mainland provinces such as Guangdong, Hainan, and Fujian, which was observed mainly in the 1980s to the early 2000s. All data were collected by Masahisa Segawa thorough his anthropological fieldwork in this area. It comprises three parts: (1) Photographic data on the rituals, daily custom, hamlets, architectures and living tools, as well as the landscapes surrounding them. (2) Total or partial copy of genealogical books compiled and reserved by local lineages in Hong Kong and Southeastern China. (3) Copy of 1:1000 Village maps edited by Hong Kong colonial government in 1980s. It contains many images of the ancestor worship rituals, seasonal ceremonies, and other customary activities of Han Chinese and other ethnic minorities in this area in the late 20th and the early 21st century and also contains the genealogical information of local lineages in the area. Due to the inclusion of personal information, this collection is not publicly accessible. If necessary for academic research, you can apply for access and if permission is granted, you will be able to view it within the Center for North Asian Studies, Tohoku University (though the scheme is currently under development).
Kitake Monjo
Since 2020, the Uehiro Research Division of Historical Materials Study of the Center for Northeast Asian Studies at Tohoku University has been investigating 482 historical documents belonging to the Kita family, a feudal retainer of the Sendai Domain during the Edo period. The project was conducted with the approval of Miyagi Prefecture’s Kami Town Board of Education, which possesses the documents.
Tundra Nenets in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District: Their Lifestyle and Subsistence Activity
This collection is the image materials of the traditional culture of Nenets, an indigenous people for the exhibition which was held in 2020 by the invitation of the administration of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation. The photos were taken as part of a cultural anthropology survey conducted by Professor Atsushi Yoshida of Chiba University from 1995 to 2016.
Archive on the 2012 Photo Exhibition of Siberian Ethnography in Siberia
Social anthropologist Hiroki Takakura organized the photo exhibition in Sakkyryr village, Eveno-Bytantaiskii Ulus, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russian Federation during March 22-24, 2012. The photographs were taken by him conducting anthropological fieldwork at the Verkhoyansky region in Siberia during 1994-1996. This archive shows various aspects of the traditional livelihood of the indigenous Eveny people with the beautiful landscape of Verkhoyansky regions. There are two values in this archive: the first is on the historic-ethnographical record of the culture of Eveny people after the dissolution of socialist regime; and the second is on the material suggesting a way of collaboration between scientists and the targeted people for the research.Search
