Where the Landscape Inspires the Lines: Python-based Workbooks and Digital Tools for Reading Yoshino ki

Author

Miaoling Xue, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

2-2025

Document Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

M.A.

Program

Digital Humanities

Advisor

Lisa M. Rhody

Subject Categories

Digital Humanities

Keywords

Japanese Literature, Text Analysis, Digital Humanities, Poetic Travelogue, Manuscript Studies, Interdisciplinary

Abstract

Where the Landscape Inspires the Lines (https://yoshinoki.info/) explores the intersection of premodern Japanese literature and digital humanities (DH) through an innovative online platform for reading, annotating, and coding. Centered on Yoshino ki 吉野記 (A Record of Yoshino), a seventeenth-century Japanese poetic travelogue authored by the poet and courtier Asukai Masaaki 飛鳥井雅章 (1611–1679), this project offers an interactive and immersive experience designed to meet the academic and research needs of a diverse group of scholars and students while advocating for a multilingual approach that challenges anglophone-centric biases often found in DH. To ensure consistency, the project uses Yoshino ki as a unified reference title to encompass the various names this work has held throughout its history.

This digital platform integrates educational videos, an interactive map that contextualizes this work’s geographical references, a meticulously designed parallel manuscript viewer with annotation features, and hands-on Python-based workbooks alongside ready-to-use digital tools for analyzing poems.

By employing high-resolution digital scans under the Creative Commons licenses, the platform provides diverse methods for examining multiple versions of this travelogue and its poems. This project demonstrates the power of interdisciplinary approaches, blending computational methods, literary analysis, manuscript studies, and visual design. It aims to make premodern Japanese literature accessible to a wide range of audiences, from scholars and students to general Japanese culture enthusiasts. The current project website serves as a first technical demonstration. In the long term, it aims to incorporate collaborations with scholars from the University of British Columbia, Waseda University, and the local Yoshino community, fostering a deeper engagement with Yoshino’s cultural heritage.

Recommended Citation

Xue, Miaoling, "Where the Landscape Inspires the Lines: Python-based Workbooks and Digital Tools for Reading Yoshino ki" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6136