COMMUNICATIONS

I am delighted to be appointed as Project Associate Professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, effective July 2024. As a faculty member specializing in Digital Humanities (DH), I am eager to foster collaboration with both domestic and overseas institutions on DH projects.

DH is an interdisciplinary field that spans the humanities and natural sciences, and actively utilizes digital technologies, or research on such technologies, to offer new approaches to the discipline and expand the boundaries of its scholarship.

In my case, I am researching the use of toxic substances in books.

Since ancient times, humans have used a wide variety of pigments and dyes to color objects, some of which are highly toxic. For example, the red paint used on the bottom of ships contains copper oxides, which prevents marine organisms such as barnacles from attaching to the ship.

Examples of minerals and pigments that contain arsenic（property of the author）

Down to the nineteenth century, toxic pigments were frequently used to decorate books, while perhaps also protecting them from pests.

Antique books with arsenic pigments（property of the author）

However, antique books containing toxic colorants, particularly arsenic, can pose health risks to humans as well as pests. For this reason, while drawing on the help and advice researchers overseas, I am working with libraries and antiquarian bookstores around Japan to identify books containing arsenic. My current project also advises libraries to digitize toxic books and make them available online, so people are able to avoid handling them.

This research requires expertise in the humanities, particularly in book history and library practices, as well as digital technologies, including digital archiving and X-ray fluorescence analysis. Although the number of books to be surveyed is substantial, and the process is challenging, we will look to identify and digitize books containing arsenic so that anyone is able to safely use these historical materials.