Contribution to Regional Cultural Resources Conservation and Local Identity Establishment in Every Part of Japan

The Historiographical Institute (HI) has been investigating historical resources, a part of which has been compiled as local history. Such activity is sometimes carried out as commissioned research from a number of local governments in cooperation with their regional boards of education and associations. By making the results public, this project has created an environment to use local cultural resources as research materials, and has played a significant role in conserving them. Furthermore, the HI has been developing the method for making good use of historical resources by creating the Joint Usage/ Research Center in cooperation with scholars, museums and regional governments in many parts of Japan. Thus, the HI activities have contributed to revitalizing local communities by establishing their identity through historical research, originally accumulated by the HI in great detail. These activities will be helpful for human resources development in which historical resources are passed down to the next generations.
HI activities are characterized by cooperation with multiple partners covering broad areas.
The Representative Case

1. The HI discovered a Letter of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) in cooperation with the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History. This news was widely reported by national newspapers, based on the press conference on July 7th, 2017. The research results will be made public in a project exhibition at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History this autumn.
2. HI’s research has been carried out on the Masuda House documents that are preserved in the HI Library, and its related documents are kept at the original site. The research has been conducted in cooperation with Shimane Prefecture and Masuda City. The results of this joint project will be made public in the special exhibition in the Iwami Art Museum, Shimane Prefecture, in autumn this year. This research has also contributed to a local-revitalizing project by Masuda City’s town development through making use of history.
3. A symposium on War of Nagashino and Shitaragahara (1575), a joint research project with Shinshiro City and Aichi Prefecture, was held to make the results public in February, 2016. The following exhibition on related documents was held in the Shitaragahara Historical Museum.
4. A symposium on Ryukyu Documents was held to make the results of joint research public in Naha City in December, 2015. In connection with this project, the HI published a book in May, 2017.
5. The project, Constructing and Opening the Database on “Documents of Shinano” and Zenkoji Documents in collaboration with local community, has been carried out by Nagano Prefectural Museum of History. This has been developed from the joint project on “Documents of Shinano” with the HI under the governmental project, Supporting Creative Activities at Art Museums and History Museums with the Local Community in 2014.
6. A Joint project on the Documents on the Lord of the Domain in Akita was carried out in cooperation with Akita Prefectural Archives. The information about the research on every document is attached to the digital image, which can be viewed by the public at the HI Library and Akita Prefectural Archives via the HI server. This project is significant in terms of opening the local historical documents in its original site.
7. The HI has made public digital image and information of the Documents of the Yōmei Bunko library (Konoe House in Kyoto) produced by the HI in collaboration with the Kyoto Institute, Library and Archives and Yomei Bunko library in 2017. This information can be viewed in the Kyoto Institute, Library and Archives as well as the HI Library. As a result, the research environment at the original site has been improved greatly.

• KUROSHIMA Satoshi and YARA Ken’ichiro eds., The Sail for the Studies on Ryukyu Documents, Bensei Shuppan, 2017(黒嶋敏･屋良健一郎編『琉球史料学の船出』勉誠出版､2017年)
• SAEKI Noriya et al., “An Interpretation of and Introduction to the Medieval Section of the Misumi Nikū Shrine Documents”, Research Annual of the Historiographical Institute Vol.26, 2016(佐伯徳哉他｢島根県浜田市三隅歴史民俗資料館寄託｢三隅二宮神社文書｣中世分の翻刻と紹介｣『史料編纂所研究紀要』26､2016年)
• MURAI Yuki ed., Collection of the Documents of Wakisaka, separate volume of Tatsuno Historical and Cultural Museum ed., Letters from Hideyoshi, Tatsunoshi-ritsu Tatsuno Rekishi Bunka Shiryokan, 2016(たつの市立龍野歴史文化資料館『秀吉からのたより･(村井祐樹編)脇坂家文書集成』2016年)
• Shitaragahara Historical Museum, Shinshiro City, ed., The Old Battle Field Tells: War of Nagashino and Shitaragahara, Fubai-sha, 2014(新城市設楽原歴史資料館『古戦場は語る 長篠･設楽原の戦い』風媒社､2014年)
• TAJIMA Isao ed., History of Court Culture from Great Treasure of Konoe House: One Thousand Years of Grace Descended in the Yomei Bunko Library, Kasama Shoin, 2016(田島公編『近衛家名宝からたどる宮廷文化史―陽明文庫が伝える千年のみやび』笠間書院､2016年)