Research Guides: ARH 485/585: Japan, Architecture, Empire: Images and Audiovisual Resources

Select reference books with illustrations:

Introduction to Japanese Architecture by Michiko Kimura Young; David Young
Call Number: Online
ISBN: 9780794601003
Publication Date: 2003
This work provides an overview of Japanese architecture in its historical and cultural context.
Impressions of Japanese Architecture by Ralph Adams Cram; Mira Locher
Call Number: Online
ISBN: 9784805311073
Publication Date: 2010
Originally published about one hundred years ago, Impressions of Japanese Architecture is still of immense value to anyone wishing for a better understanding of Japanese architecture, art and culture.
Architecture and Authority in Japan by William H. Coaldrake
Call Number: Online
ISBN: 9780415057547
Publication Date: 1996
Includes useful architecture/landscape plans.
What Is Japanese Architecture? by Kazuo Nishi; Kazuo Hozumi
Call Number: NA1553 .N5713 2012
ISBN: 9781568364124
Publication Date: 2012
Survey of traditional Japanese architecture.

Tips for finding images:

Print books may have images that are not readily available online.
Collect keywords from image captions to use in searching image collections online.
Search mindfully. Different people/institutions sometimes use different words to refer to the same thing.
Check for the source of images you find; they could lead you to otherwise hidden collections.

Images

Recommended image collections online:

ARTstor (off-campus)
Search over one million digital images in the fields of the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences

East Asia Image Collection (Lafayette)
Lafayette's East Asia Image Collection (EAIC) is an open-access archive of digitized photographs, negatives, postcards, rare books and slides.
Japanese Historical Maps Database (UC Berkeley)
The Japanese Historical Maps Collection of UC Berkeley's East Asian Library contains about 2,300 early maps of Japan and the World.
Asian Historical Architecture
Donor-driven archive of images of Asian architecture, organized geographically.
Harvard Library Manchukuo Collection
View material related to the Pan-Asian state once located in northeastern China and controlled by imperial Japan.
Harvard Library Historical Maps of Manchukuo
41 digitized maps of Manchukuo
Early Photographs Collection (International Research Center for Japanese Studies)
Hand-colored photographs (with source information) of Japan from the late Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji era in the Nichibunken collection.
Korean Photo Picture Postcards
Photo picture postcards of Korea published 1900–1940 (collection of Yamamoto Shunsuke, Kyoto; former researcher at the Koryo Museum of Art, Kyoto) are presented in digital format together with publication data and other details (Opened on December 25th, 2017).
Overseas Images of Japan Database
Photographs, illustrations, and other images extracted from Japan-related publications from around the world, as well as bibliographical information.
Overseas Shrine Image Database
Digitized Japanese Art Exhibition Catalogs (Getty Research Portal)
Images of Okinawa after WWII (University of Hawai'i)
The Images of Okinawa collection is composed of 195 color slides donated in July 2010 by Ms. Madeleine K. Van Epps, plus 53 black & white photos taken by the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR).
Japan Air Raids
A digital archive dedicated to the dissemination of information and research about the air raids conducted by the United States Army Air Forces and Navy against Japan.
Doing Photography and Social Research in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951 (Ohio State University)
Doing Photography and Social Research in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951 is a prize-winning digital collection created at Ohio State. The collection was originally prepared by the late John W. Bennett, who passed away at 89 on February 74, 2005.
Hiroshima Archive
Includes about 170 testimonies and about 150 photographs.
Art of the Japanese Postcard (Museum of Fine Arts Boston)
In March 2002 Leonard A. Lauder donated his collection of more than twenty thousand Japanese postcards to the Museum of Fine Arts. These works largely date from the early twentieth century to the years just before World War Two and represent an astonishing array of subjects and styles.
Japanese Engineering Photograph Database