In my first editor’s digest, I explored all publications in The Digital Orientalist within Northeast Asian Studies from September 2023 to February 2024. I followed this with a second digest covering February to November 2024. It might be possible to do the same here (and I include a list of all related publications at the end of this article), but instead I want to use today’s digest to do something a little different and highlight a small selection of articles that I felt have been particularly noteworthy.
Brian Tsz Ho Wong made a significant contribution with his three-part series on the National Diet Library’s (NDL) Full-Text Search System (Part 1; Part 2; Part 3). This series provides practical examples of how the NDL’s database can be integrated into a research project. In Part 1, Wong uses the database and its full-text search system to find materials related to a single historical figure and his historical networks, and in Part 2, he uses it to conduct research on companies. Finally Part 3 uses the platform to explore the physical spaces in which historical figures gathered socially. Together these pieces show the power of the NDL’s database and its search tools as a resource and invite us as readers to think about how we might be able to use this platform in inventive ways within our own research.
Stephanie Santschi’s guest contribution “Think Tasks Not Tools: Teaching AI Literacy in East Asian Art History,” was published in early September, 2025 and has proven to be a popular read. At the heart of the article is a question that many of us engaged in higher education are currently battling with: “How do we teach in an age of AI, LLMS, and ChatBots?” Santschi argues that clear guidelines can be used to reposition AI as a learning tool. The article introduces Santschi’s “AI_d” (artificial intelligence with didactic considerations) framework, which helps to ensure that the skills central to humanities research ‘critical analysis, source evaluation, argumentation, and cultural interpretation, remain the guiding goals of [the] teaching process.’ I am looking forward to seeing how AI_d develops after further testing and development.
As an editor and reader of The Digital Orientalist, I have always enjoyed Emma Donington Kiey’s contributions. Donington Kiey has really pushed the boundaries of the sort of materials that we publish within Japanese studies by introducing topics such as clothing history, digital animation, and most recently the digitisation of botanical specimens. Published in early October, 2025, Donington Kiey’s “Digital Storytelling in the Digitisation of Japanese Botanical Specimens in RBG, Kew’s Collections,” uses the example of digitising botanical specimens to illustrate how digitisation can facilitate digital storytelling. The article contains detailed descriptions of the digitisation process and points readers to Kew’s Data Portal, where these digitisations can be accessed, as well as to related documents in Kew’s collections. In this way, Donington Kiey uses the digitisations as a point of departure to weave a digital story that serves to make the article and the materials therein of interest to a wide audience both within and outside of Japanese studies or botanical history.
Ongoing Goals for the Northeast Asian Studies Team
Whilst not usually part of a digest, I thought that I would also take this time to reiterate that The Digital Orientalist is always looking to expand through guest submissions or permanent additions to the team. Moving into the future the Northeast Asian Studies team would relish the opportunity to publish more materials related to Korean Studies and to start publishing on Mongolian Studies again. If you have something to contribute, please see more details or reach out to us via our submissions’ page.
Publications related to Northeast Asian Studies from February 2024 to October 2025
James Harry Morris, “Using Furigana Bunko,” published 10/12/2024.
Raúl Cervera Álvarez and Celia Gonzalez Diaz, “Aozora Bunko: Notes on Usage,” published 07/01/2025.
Brian Tsz Ho Wong, “Unearthing Modern Japan’s Subterranean Networks with the National Diet Library’s (NDL) Full-Text Search System (Part 1): Kugimiya Iwao and the Circles of Orthodox Christians,” published 11/02/2025.
James Harry Morris, “Digital Resources for Reading Japanese Seals,” published 25/02/2025.
Tomasz Sleziak, “How the Sounds (Im)properly Educate the People: Korea and the World, Then, and Now,” published 01/04/2025.
James Harry Morris, “On Voyant Tools, Stopword Lists, and Japanese Textual Analysis and Visualisation,” published 08/04/2025.
Brian Tsz Ho Wong, “Unearthing Modern Japan’s Subterranean Networks with the National Diet Library’s (NDL) Full-Text Search System (Part 2): Private Capital and the Financing of Historical SMEs,” published 20/05/2025.
Stephanie Santschi, “Think Tasks Not Tools: Teaching AI Literacy in East Asian Art History,” published 09/09/2025.
Maddalena Poli, “An Overview of Digital Tools and Resources for East Asian Studies Reviewed by The Digital Orientalist Members,” published 19/09/2025.
Brian Tsz Ho Wong, “Unearthing Modern Japan’s Subterranean Networks with the National Diet Library’s (NDL) Full-Text Search System (Part 3): Celebrity Diaries and Spatial Politics in Wartime Tokyo,” published 30/09/2025.
Emma Donington Kiey, “Digital Storytelling in the Digitisation of Japanese Botanical Specimens in RBG, Kew’s Collections,” published 07/10/2025.
James Harry Morris, “The Resource Guide for Japanese Studies and Humanities in Japan: A Brief (Re-)Introduction,” published 17/10/2025.
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