Q.What is the difference between the "Wooden Tablet Database" and the "Wooden Tablet Image Database (Character Dictionary)" previously available?

A.This system is an integration of the previously existing "Wooden Tablet Database" and "Wooden Tablet Image Database (Character Dictionary)." It enables searching, from a single window, data on contents in the "Wooden Tablet Database" and character images in the "Wooden Tablet Image Database (Character Dictionary)," and is thus an integrated database enhancing user-friendliness. For details, see What is the "Wooden Tablet Database?"

Q.Why does the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties make databases on wooden tablets publicly available?

A.The Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties is the organization that has investigated and holds custody over the greatest number of wooden tablets in Japan, and functioning as a national center for research on archaeologically recovered written documents in Japan, it makes available a variety of databases with information on these cultural properties.
Based on the need to aggregate and make accessible data on wooden tablets, a database has been compiled since the 1980s, and in 1999 this was made publicly available as the "Wooden Tablet Database." Subsequently, with support from a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, data on wooden tablets have continued to be provided with the compilation from 2003 of the "Wooden Tablet Image Database (Character Dictionary)" and "MOJIZO: Image matching search for mokkan or cursive characters." For details, see What is the "Wooden Tablet Database?" The current database is a newly compiled integration utilizing the results of research conducted up to the present, and is being made publicly accessible with the aim of aggregating a variety of data and functions.

Q.What are the special features of this database?

A.This is a unique system for Japan for searching wooden tablets, in which wooden tablet data for all of Japan have been aggregated. If you have some question concerning wooden tablets, try starting from "Search All."

Q.What kinds of wooden tablets are included?

A.Included in the database are not only wooden tablets that have been investigated and are held by the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, but with cooperation from the Japanese Society for the Study of Wooden Documents, wooden documents introduced in its journal that have been recovered from throughout the country, from the Ancient to the Modern periods.

Q.About how many wooden tablets are included?

A.Approximately 53,000 wooden tablets (as of March 2018) from throughout Japan are included. Discoveries of wooden tablets increase in number daily, and the data are periodically updated and increased. For details see Number of Records on the top page.

Q.About how many wooden tablet images are included?

A.There are two types of images included in the previous databases:
　former "Wooden Tablet Database" — approx. 35,000 (monochrome)
　former "Wooden Tablet Image Database (Character Dictionary)" — approx. 14,000 wooden tablets (front and back counted separately), approx. 100,000 character images (color, monochrome, infrared, recording notebook)
　*(as of March 2018)
Image data are continually updated and increased. For details, see the list under the heading Notices on the top page for update information.

Q.Why are there differences in the number of images that can be viewed for different wooden tablets?

A.Wooden tablet images basically can be displayed in multiple numbers for each image type (color, monochrome, infrared, recording notebook), but as the number of images in the database may differ depending on the wooden tablet, the numbers of images that can be displayed may also differ.

Q.How much data is included for searches by meaning?

A.Of the wooden tablets in the former "Wooden Tablet Image Database (Character Dictionary)," approximately 1,200 items are included (as of February 2016).
The semantic classification tree has three levels, with 40 categories at the primary level, 80 subcategories at the secondary and 79 subcategories at the tertiary levels.

Q.What is included in "Search All"?

A.All of the fields in the narrowed search become the search targets.

Q.What can be searched in the "Text" field?

A.Charactrers (readings) inscribed on wooden tablets are the search targets.

Q.Why is "Search character images . . . From image" linked to the site MOJIZO?

A."MOJIZO: Image matching search for mokkan or cursive characters" is a database of character images, using images as search items, jointly developed by the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties and the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, and is operated as a separate system (site) from this database.Accordingly, a link is made to it.
In MOJIZO, the search item image is analyzed, and similar images are displayed from both the data accumulated by the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties on character forms and styles from mokkan (wooden tablets), and similarly from the ancient documents, diaries, and books assembled by Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo. (For details, click here: https://mojizo.nabunken.go.jp/doc/legend.html#greeting). As the two systems are operated separately, we feel this arrangement is an effective means for the comprehensive collection of data on wooden tablets, and hope you will make use of the link.

Q.Why does the number of results differ when searching from the same text, but in the search modes of Text, versus Category, versus From Image?

A.When the search mode is Text, a hit will be returned if the search string is in the text of a wooden tablet. However, for a Category or Character Image search made within the text field, getting a hit will depend on whether a tablet has semantic analysis results or character image data stored in the database (character image data are nearly all for tablets investigated and held by the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), so even if a string is in the text of a tablet, it may not generate a hit. Please bear in mind that for this reason, the number of hits may differ.

Q.Why is it that the number of results shown in the list of results for texts and the list of results for character images differ may differ for the same search term?

A.When the search mode is Text, a hit will be returned whenever the search string is in the text of a wooden tablet.
However, for a Category or Character Image search made within the text field, as there are cases where a tablet has no semantic category analysis results or character image data stored in the database (character image data are primarily for items investigated and held by the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), the search will not return a hit for that tablet even if the search term is in its text. Please keep in mind that for this reason, the number of results may differ.

Q.The number of results using the same search term differ for the Select All mode and a narrowed search. Why is that?

A.That is because the areas that are searched differ. For example, in a search with 大和 as the search term in the Search All mode, if the term is in any of the data categories shown in the Detailed Information Window it will generate a hit, but if the search is narrowed to the Ancient Province category, only items with the term in that category will be shown in the results.

Q.The number of results using the same search term differ for the Select All mode and a narrowed search. Why is that?

A.Symbols in the Text field are not the product of garbling due to improper encoding, etc. For the meaning of each symbol, please see the Explanatory Notes. The orthography for deciphered text in principle uses standard character forms.
For characters that cannot be represented (not assigned a code) the symbol 〓 is displayed. For characters displayed as 〓 see the Variant Character section of the Detailed Information Window for the particular wooden tablet (in some cases, no explanation of the character form is given).

Q.There are many images in which the characters are difficult to discern. Are there no clearer images?

A.Due to deterioration and damage, the characters of wooden tablets are at times difficult to make out. Conversion to high resolution digital images is being conducted as time permits, but there are still cases in which only low resolution images are available. As the conversion to new images is proceeding apace, see the Notices on the top page for information on updates.

Q.Why are images sometimes missing ("No Image" is displayed) in the Detailed Information Window?

A.Items for which "No Image" is displayed still do not have monochrome images in the database. Please understand that the process of expanding the image data is proceeding apace.
However, when the See More button appears to the right of the image frame, clicking the button displays color or other images (from the former "Wooden Tablet Image Database [Character Dictionary]").
Image data are being continually augmented and updated. For details see the update information listed in the Notices on the top page.