This project is a master’s capstone submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Digital Humanities (DH) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York. The project addresses the dual challenges of teaching foreign literature in a digital environment and responding to the anglophone-centric approaches in DH by centering on Yoshino ki 吉野記 (A Record of Yoshino), a mid-17th century Japanese manuscript authored by courtier and poet Asukai Masaaki 飛鳥井雅章 (1611–1679). Yoshino ki is a lavishly crafted poetic travelogue depicting Asukai Masaaki’s journey to renowned sites in what is now Western Japan, and it exists in multiple versions. This project presented a digital journey through three versions of Yoshino ki: those housed at the University of British Columbia (UBC version), Tokyo Gakugei University Library (Gakugei version), and the Miyagi Prefectural Library (Miyagi version).
By developing tailored educational videos, annotation tools, and Python tutorials, this project provides hands-on and practical resources for engaging with Yoshino ki and exploring premodern Japanese poetry and writing. By addressing the academic and research needs of a diverse group of scholars and students, the project not only enhances accessibility to these invaluable cultural materials but also advocates for a multilingual approach that challenges existing epistemic asymmetries in DH. Please contact Miaoling, the developer, if you have questions.
