Tateuchi East Asia Library (TEAL) is hosting a special research presentation by Azusa Tanaka, TEAL Japanese collection librarian as part of the 2025-26 Digital Scholarship Series. Tanaka’s research using microscopic examination and artificial intelligence unlocks the origin and age of paper used in premodern media.
November 6, 2026
Gowen Hall 3 FL Seminar Room (enter via library internal elevator)
3:30 – 5PM
Determining the publication date of a book is essential for research across various disciplines. However, many pre-Meiji (pre-1868) Japanese publications lack clear publication dates, making the task of dating these works particularly challenging. Traditional methods, such as analyzing authorship or binding, often pose risks to delicate archival materials and can be subjective.
In this talk, a non-invasive, AI-driven method for estimating the publication dates of undated Japanese works will be introduced. A calibrated microscope camera captured over 10,000 images from dated publications spanning 1697 to 1868. These images revealed key variations in fiber density, uniformity, and structure over time. Using these data, a machine learning model was trained to predict publication dates of undated texts.