Paper short abstract:

This paper will introduce preliminary work done using the collections of the University of California to create a digital atlas of the city of Edo/Tokyo during the nineteenth century and raise questions about what theories and methods can be used to underpin such an effort.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will introduce several examples from preliminary work on a digital cultural atlas of the city of Edo/Tokyo during the nineteenth century. The project uses archival materials from the collections of the University of California, Berkeley which have been digitized by Ritsumeikan's Art Research Center. This paper will focus on materials from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that use archival materials to better understand literary works from the Meiji period. The paper will also lay out some of the theoretical ideas that underpin the project.