Drawing from the Crowd: A Citizen Science Platform for Mapping Ukiyo-e Cultural Geography
Drawing from the Crowd: Mapping the Geography of Japanese Woodblock Prints
Project Overview
Website: https://landscapes.theprintlab.org/
Principal Investigator: Dr. Stephanie Santschi
Funded by The Nippon Foundation Scholars Association (TNFSA) (Prototype), UZH Graduate Research Campus (Implementation)
How did Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) from the Edo period (1603–1868) shape the way people understood and navigated their world? This project explores how these iconic images encoded spatial relationships and taught viewers to see landscapes—from specific vantage points, distances, and perspectives. Understanding how ukiyo-e landscapes represent actual geography requires comparatively analyzing images across different artists, regions, and time periods. To distinguish topographically accurate elements from stylized or conventional features, Drawing from the Crowd—the first digital platform designed to extract spatial data directly from ukiyo-e at scale, was developed by Santschi coordinating a research team (Himanshu Panday, Drew Richardson, Hirohito Tsuji).
Data
Image and metadata sourced from:
Metropolitan Museum of Art NYJapanese Prints (Ukiyo-e) and Paintings Portal Database at the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University,JapanSearch: National Diet Library, Taito City Lifelong Learning Center
Terrain data from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.
Data enrichment utilizingWikidata and GeoHack Toolforge.
Visualization and citizen science platform: Smapshot (HEIG-VD).
The project would like to thank all partners – only together, Digital Humanities become possible.
Methodology
The platform adapts monoplotting technology from HEIG-VD's initiative Smapshot to accommodate the unique spatial conventions of Japanese prints. This participatory approach is methodologically essential—aligning stylized images with terrain requires understanding cultural conventions for encoding space, something neither computers nor individual researchers can accomplish at this scale. Drawing from the Crowd engages citizen scientists worldwide in reconstructing the original viewpoints depicted in ukiyo-e landscapes. Participants identify vantage points and viewing directions by aligning prints with modern terrain data. When multiple participants independently reconstruct the same print, patterns of agreement reveal whether prints engaged topographically with actual locations, copied from other prints, or followed artistic conventions.
Preliminary Findings
Beta testing has revealed that middle and background elements in prints maintain consistent relationships with actual terrain even when foreground elements are manipulated for artistic effect. Accurate alignment emerges not from iconic features like Mt. Fuji but from terrain contours—temple layouts, coastlines, and hills. Comparing multiple prints of the same location reveals genealogies of copying and distinguishes prints based on observation from those following literary or conventional formulas.
Collaborations and Impact
The bilingual platform (Japanese / English) invites global participation from non-specialists, making research accessible to diverse audiences.