Minna de Honkoku and the Cambridge Summer School in Japanese Early Modern Palaeography: An Interview, Part 1

Long term readers of the Digital Orientalist will likely remember pieces that I wrote on “Digital Resources for Japanese Palaeography” and the transcription platform Minna de honkoku based on my experiences participating in the “Tackling Pandemics in Early Modern Japan” project which run in place of the Cambridge Summer School in Japanese Early Modern Palaeography in 2020. This year I attended the eighth summer school where I again had the pleasure of using the Minna de honkoku platform, and the chance to reflect on the use of digital tools within research and education more generally. Following the summer school, I invited one of the developers of Minna de honkoku, Prof. Hashimoto Yuta (National Museum of Japanese History), the organizer of the summer school, Dr. Laura Moretti (University of Cambridge), and one of the teachers on the summer school, Mr. Joseph Bills (University of Cambridge), to participate in an interview on the use of Minna de honkoku in educational settings. Today it is my pleasure to introduce the first part of that interview which can be viewed or listened to via the embedded video below.

During the first part of the interview, we learn about the history of the summer school, the history and development of Minna de honkoku, the ways in which Minna de honkoku was used during the summer school, and the educational methodologies used by those teaching the summer school. There is also discussion on issues related to the reading of early modern Japanese materials and the use of digital tools within Japanese studies more generally.

The second part of the interview will be avaliable next week!