Digital Literary Map of Japan

Poetic places (called utamakura or meisho) have a long standing tradition in Japanese literature, creating a web of topographical references transcending genres of pre-modern writing. Mentioning a poetic place invokes earlier references and a set of textual or even pictorial connotations which gives a special depth to the text.
This program aims at mapping Japan’s most important literary places and providing detailed information on their historic, cultural, and poetic meaning.

This website is funded by the Ōsaka University.

In the past, the project has been funded by the National Institute of Japanese Literature NIJL-NW project within the NIHU Program for Young Researcher Overseas Visits for the year of 2017.