Japan’s Imperial Household Agency: The Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System

Overview 

The Imperial Household Agency in Tokyo is an administrative body under the Cabinet Office for affairs relating to the Imperial Family of Japan. They are also one of Japan’s leading cultural property and heritage management bodies, and the Archives and Mausolea Department, a department specialising in cultural properties, is included under their remit. The Imperial Household Archives and the Imperial House Library, which are operated by the Archives and Mausolea Department, were temporarily closed from March 2020 due to the pandemic, but resumed limited operations in October 2021.^[1] During this period, the contents of the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System have been dramatically enhanced, which is good news for Japanese historians, art historians, and archaeologists. The system is a breakthrough with multiple functions: online public access catalogue, digital archives, and online exhibitions. 

Developed Process and Organisational History 

In 1949, the Imperial Household Agency was established as the successor to the Ministry of the Imperial Household, which had been abolished by the US occupation forces. While the latter had independence from the government, the former was positioned as a full government department. The Archives and Mausolea Department took over the duties of the Library Section and the Imperial Mausolea and Tombs Section of the former Ministry of the Imperial Household.  

The Archives and Mausolea Department is divided into three sections.^[2] The Archives Division is responsible for the maintenance, registration, and archive of the Imperial family record, for archiving, repairing, transferring and reproducing documents and records such as ancient documents that have been passed from generation to generation in the Imperial family, for editing and maintaining the archives about the Imperial Household Agency, and for matters related to the branch of the National Diet Library in the Imperial Household Agency and Shōsōin Treasure House. The Compiling Division is responsible for the compilation of historical texts for successive emperors and the Imperial families, and for matters related to compilation and archive of the Kōshitsu seido shiryō 皇室制度史料 [Historical Materials of the Imperial System] and other documents. The Mausolea and Tombs Division is responsible for the maintenance, investigation and study of the Imperial Mausoleums and Tombs. 

The Imperial Household Agency first published its catalogue data online in the late 2000s. The catalogue data of the Imperial Household Archives and the Imperial House Library were made available in 2006 and 2013, respectively. The latter was released later than the former because many traditional characters could not be input under Shift JIS, the sort of character encoding that was common at the time, and it was necessary to wait for the transition to the UTF-8 environment. In order to improve convenience (see below), the two systems were integrated in 2014 to form today’s Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System.^[3]  

Since then, online exhibitions have been held regularly and the content has been expanded: in 2017, data on archaeological artefacts held by the Mausolea and Tombs Division was newly made available; in 2018, the system was renewed and back numbers of previous online exhibitions and a list of publications by the Imperial Household Agency were added; in 2019, a page listing the catalogues of exhibitions held at the Archives and Mausolea Department’s building until 2011 was also uploaded.^[4] The catalogue information is still being revised and updated as necessary. 

Features 

The Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System has opened information on the catalogue of materials as of the end of October 2017. The collection of the Imperial House Library contains more than 70,000 items, including portraits of members of the Imperial Family, artworks of calligraphy and painting, diaries and letters by members of the Imperial Family or court nobles, literary works, records and research books on legislation, rituals and traditional cultures, and printed books and old manuscripts of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The Imperial Household Archives provides information on the catalogue of specific historical records and other documents created or acquired by the Ministry of the Imperial Household, the Imperial Household Office, and the Imperial Household Agency since modern times. The main items include official documents relating to administrative laws and regulations governing the Imperial Household in the modern period, and useful compilations such as the Tennō kōzoku jitsuroku 天皇皇族實錄 [Records of the Emperor and the Imperial Family], which is an important famous source collection of historical documents for learning the genealogy of the Imperial Family.^[5] The Mausolea and Tombs Division provides catalogue information from the Shutsudohin tenji mokuroku 出土品展示目録 [Exhibition Catalogues of Excavated Objects], which has been published in the past. Specifically, it includes ancient mirrors, ornaments, weapons, protectors, harnesses, haniwa 埴輪 [Japanese clay figurines], etc. excavated from Imperial mausoleums or tombs across Japan. 

The catalogue information includes the call number and detailed information such as the name, age and number of materials for each material posted. In addition to this, unified control terms are used, enabling efficient data extraction.^[6]  

Some materials are provided with image data, which can be used without visiting the Imperial Household Agency in person. For the release of images, the system is linked to the systems of the National Institute of Japanese Literature and Keio University. The quality of the images is extremely good and they can be downloaded. Initially, only a very small number of materials had images available, however, as mentioned above, the number of images available has increased dramatically since the pandemic, making the system even more convenient. 

Online exhibitions are regularly held on the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System. Unlike ordinary libraries and archives, the Imperial House Library and the Imperial Household Archives, which require complicated procedures to reserve access, are inevitably difficult for the general public to visit simply. Against this backdrop, online exhibitions on different themes are very significant from the perspective of educational dissemination. It is hoped that the existence of the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System will become better known to the general public in order to broaden their understanding of the history and culture of the Imperial Family and the cultural properties owned by the Imperial Household Agency.  

An innovative feature of the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System is the ability to search for materials in different categories at once: classical historiographies (Imperial House Library), official documents (Imperial Household Archives) and archaeological artefacts (Mausolea and Tombs Division). For example, a batch search on 16th Emperor Nintoku 仁德天皇 (257?-399?) will display at once the family tree of his lineage (Imperial House Library), the accounting records of the repair of his Imperial mausoleum (Imperial Household Archives), and the haniwa excavated from his Imperial mausoleum (Mausolea and Tombs Division).^[7] It is noteworthy that this expands the possibilities for interdisciplinary approaches to a single subject.  

In addition, the Imperial Household Agency has one of the largest collections of classical books on astronomy, medicine and pharmacy in Japan. As such the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System is very useful not only for researchers in the humanities and social sciences, such as history, literature, religion, arts, law, and politics, but also for natural scientists. 

Points to Note  

As mentioned above, the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System is extremely useful, but there are a few points to bear in mind.  

Firstly, the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System does not include all cultural properties owned by the Imperial Household Agency. The collections of the Shōsōin and the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan (which became an independent administrative institution in 2023) are not included in the cross-search. Also not included are a substantial number of Korean-related collections transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1965 and 2011.^[8] 

Even though a considerable amount of image data was added during the pandemic period, not all images of all materials are publicly available. For this reason, it is necessary to visit the Imperial Household Agency in person to view materials for which no image data is available, however, quite a few materials are restricted for reasons such as the prevention of deterioration and the protection of confidential information. Naturally, there are many requests for the release of images, but the Imperial Household Agency has no staff dedicated to photography, and special photography by specialist companies is required for drawings, hanging scrolls and other items with special shapes, so budgetary problems limit the number of images to a dozen or so a year at best.^[9] Of the images published, archaeological materials do not feature colour charts and sample scales. This is extremely unfortunate, as a chart and a scale are essential for understanding the colour and size of the actual objects. 

One of the biggest issues is that the database is only available in Japanese, which is true of many databases provided by institutions in Japan, not just the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System, despite the fact that the users are not necessarily limited to Japanese natives or Japanologists. The Imperial Household Agency also owns materials in English or classical Chinese that are of interest to East Asian or Western historians, as well as archaeological objects and artworks that can be the subject of comparative and interdisciplinary research. In addition, online exhibitions can contribute greatly to the promotion of understanding of the Imperial Family to foreigners. In order to meet the demand of researchers outside the field of Japanese studies and non-Japanese speakers with an interest in Japan, it is hoped that the content will be made available in multiple languages in the future. 

These points need to be noted (although these problems may be fundamentally due to a lack of budget and personnel), but on the whole, the Archives and Mausolea Department Catalog and Image Disclosure System is greatly useful and an excellent database for scholars of Japanese studies. 

References

[1] Shoryōbu shozō shiryō mokuroku gazō kōkai shisutemu: Kako no oshirase. Available at: https://shoryobu.kunaicho.go.jp/Information
[2] The Imperial Household Agency: Organization and Functions of the Imperial Household Agency. Available at: https://www.kunaicho.go.jp/e-kunaicho/soshiki.html
[3] Mayuko Sugimoto, ‘The Archives in the Imperial Household Agency: Conservation and Public Access,’ The Journal of Information Science and Technology Association 65-4 (2015): 64-68.
[4] See [1].
[5] About Tennō kōzoku jitsuroku, see Hirohito Tsuji, ‘Japan Knowledge: Tennō Kōzoku Jitsuroku, Records of the Emperor and the Imperial Family.’ The Digital Orientalist (2023): https://digitalorientalist.com/2023/12/26/japan-knowledge-tenno-kozoku-jitsuroku-records-of-the-emperor-and-the-imperial-family/
[6] Shoryōbu shozō shiryō mokuroku gazō kōkai shisutemu: Hanrei. Available at: https://shoryobu.kunaicho.go.jp/Home/ExplanatoryNotes
[7] Shoryōbu shozō shiryō mokuroku gazō kōkai shisutemu: Nintoku tennō. Available at: https://shoryobu.kunaicho.go.jp/Search?keyword=%E4%BB%81%E5%BE%B3%E5%A4%A9%E7%9A%87
[8] See [6].
[9] See [3].