Portraits in medieval and Edo Period Japan, a Deta base and Historio-iconographical Study

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We are congaged in a basic compilation and study of portrait paintings, which comprise one of the major categories of visual source materials for Japanese historical research. The following is an outline of the results to date.1. Ever since the Meiji cra, the Historiographical Institute (HI), Tokyo University, has collected portraits by making replicas. At present, the HI has collected about 900 portraits, and it was important that they be properly introduced to the scholarly world. In the current project, we have photographed all of them, preparing 4X5 BW negatives, and 25.4X30.5cm.prints. We have then studied them, and made a catalog. This has drawn the attention of many other scholars to the research possibilities of replica portraits.2. The enlargements have been entered in an optical-disk filing system, and a preliminary data base has been constructed, enabling searches by the status, occupation, gender, or approximate age of the subject. This data base should enable scholars to e … More xtrapolate from the HI portrait collection some of the basic characteristics of Japanese portraits.3. The Project Team has done a complete search of all types of Japanese historical writing, as well as local histories, and compiled a catalog of data on portraits now comprising 27,000 data cards. Budget constraints forced us to postpone compiling a database from the cards ; still, by searching these cards it is possible to get a complete picture of the portrait data in Japanese historical writings.4. finally, through specific research projects, the Project Team has been able to offer several new historical interpretations. For example, the subject of "Mounted Warrior from the Moriya Family Collection" (Moriya-ke bon kiba musha-zo) held by the Culrural Affairs Agency has been traditionally identified as Kono Moronao. We have proposed that the portrait actually depicts Moronao's son Moroaki. We have also given several papers and presentations at symposia and scholarly meetings, in which we have sought to develop a theory and methodology of the portrait as historical source. In furtherance of our project, the HI sponsored a symposium on "Portraits and Historical Studies" in March, 1996, where some 257 scholars from all disciplines gathered to debate the historical status of the protrait. Less