Development of a System to Find Data Included in Old Documents Copied as Eisyabon by the Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo

1987 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 60410006
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Japanese history
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: KASAMATSU Hiroshi Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, 史料編纂所, 教授 (80013259)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KONDO Shigekazu Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, 史料編纂所, 助手 (90153717) ; NAKAMURA Makoto Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, 史料編纂所, 助手 (40107470) ; HOTATE Michihisa Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, 史料編纂所, 助教授 (70092327) ; ISHII Masatoshi Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, 史料編纂所, 助教授 (10107469) ; CHIJIWA Itaru Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, 史料編纂所, 助教授 (10013286)
• Project Period (FY): 1985 – 1987
• Keywords: Komonjo (Old Documents) / Eishabon (Exact Tracing) / Ancient and Medieval Japan Databases / 古文書学 / 古文書データベース / 検索 / 索引

Research Abstract

Historiographical Institute has since the Meiji Era made exact tracings (eisya bon) of old documents available from all over the country. Its collection of tracings covers an important source of ancient and medieval Japanese history. This present study started two years ago in order to utilize much more effectively this valuable collection.
At the beginning the group examined the basic directions for processing these sources by the computor and decided necessary fields and functions in order to construct the databases for such manifold and numerous materials as these, and also adopted various rules for processing the data included in them, thus materializing them in the program.
With these basic directions for processing, the group introduced adequete machines, developed its own program, and entered data in the worksheets and input them, thus proceeding to construction of databases useful as the finding aid.
The data of subject matters including personal and geographical names accumulated in the databases have been taken from 35,000 old documents preserved in such Buddhist temples as Todaiji, ect. and such Shinto shrines as Kasuga, etc. located in Nara and Kyoto prefecture, the center of ancient Japanese culture.
As the result, the group established a method to express documentary data of infinite form in a definte form, managable in computorial processing, and ascertain the fields to be probably computorized in reserch institutes of humanities. In the process of accumulating data, the group confirmed the necessity of more scientific studies of the temple archives in the field of diplomatics, and the effective role of the constructed data-bases in historical studies in the future.