Hacking Art
History for Fun
and Profit
John Resig

Lot 55: 20 Japanese Woodblock Prints
Each depicting a female/Geisha figure with
calligraphy throughout each print. Prints
measure 13.75" H x 9.375" W. Toning to
each print, some losses around edges.
Estimated Price: $400 - $600

Step 1: Acquire and read tons of expensive books.

Step 2: Learn to read Japanese. *
Japanese from the 17th to 19th century. *
You’re not going to learn this from Rosetta Stone.

Step 3: Learn to read Japanese calligraphy.

Solution: A fast-loading, responsive, i18ned, web
site: Ukiyo-e.org

Digital Ocean
Amazon S3
Amazon Cloudfront
Digital Ocean
Images
Data
(HTML,
XML, JSON)
Images JS, CSS
Images JS, CSS
nginx
(w/ cache)
node.js
express
node.js
express
naught
mongodb
Elastic
Search
Scraper

https://github.com/jeresig/jquery-imgscrubber

Collecting Tons of Woodblock Print Data

Search
Page Page Page
HTML
Image
HTML
Image
HTML
Image
Search
Page Page Page
HTML
Image
HTML
Image
HTML
Image
Queue-based Crawling using PhantomJS
Processing Queue

Some Website
WebKit
PhantomJS
CasperJS
SpookyJS
Save Data
XML Files
Mongo Log
libxml (+ xpath)
MongoDB
Extract Data
Process Data
Artists
Images
Correct Artist
and Date
Add to Site!

module.exports = function() {
return {
scrape: [
{
start: "http://ukiyo-e.org/search",
visit: "//a[@class='img']",
next: "//a[contains(@rel,'next')]"
},
{
extract: {
"title": "//p[contains(@class, 'title')]//span",
"dateCreated": "//p[contains(@class, 'date')]//span",
"artists[]": "//p[contains(@class, 'artist')]//a",
"images[]": "//div[contains(@class,'imageholder')]//a/@href"
}
}
]
};
};

"locale" : "ja",
"given" : "Okiie",
"given_kana" : "おきいえ",
"surname" : "Hashimoto",
"surname_kana" : "はしもと",
"name" : "Hashimoto Okiie",
"ascii" : "Hashimoto Okiie",
"plain" : "Hashimoto Okiie",
"kana" : "はしもとおきいえ",
"_id" : ObjectId("530c0825d9a80976b2000437")
}
],
"names" : [
{
"original" : "Hashimoto Okiie (橋本興家)",
"locale" : "ja",
"kanji" : "橋本興家",
"given" : "Okiie",
"given_kana" : "おきいえ",
"surname" : "Hashimoto",
"surname_kana" : "はしもと",
"given_kanji" : "興家",
"surname_kanji" : "橋本",
"name" : "Hashimoto Okiie",
"ascii" : "Hashimoto Okiie",
"plain" : "Hashimoto Okiie",
"kana" : "はしもとおきいえ",
"_id" : ObjectId("530c0825d9a80976b2000439")
}
],
"extract" : [
"53dfc997cbf9fa7501d78e4820b24a9c"
],
"created" : ISODate("2014-02-25T03:04:05Z"),
"__v" : 0
}

“Stack Scraper”
https://github.com/jeresig/stack-scraper
https://github.com/jeresig/ukiyoe-scrapers

Image Similarity

https://github.com/jeresig/node-matchengine

Image Similarity Search

Idyll: Offline Image Cropping
• https://github.com/jeresig/idyll
• Crop images offline and on a mobile
device.
• Saves the selections back to a server.
• Data is synced and saved using HTML 5
appcache.
• https://github.com/jeresig/node-
appcache-glob

by David Chester
at Shutterstock
https://github.com/dchester/perl-image-crop-calibration-target

http://www.ersatzlabs.com/

Aiding Woodblock Print
Studies with Image Analysis

Miyagawa Shuntei
Printed in 1897
Sold for: $550
Prints sell for $100-$400 individually
True Estimate: $2100 - $8400 *
* You just have to find
someone willing to buy them!

Does this work for other art forms?
• Collaborating with the Frick Art Reference Library
• Analyzing their Anonymous Italian Art Photo Archive
• Also working with the Zeri Foundation at the University
of Bologna in Italy
• Analyzing their Italian Art Archives

Similar Images
Different photo, same work of art.

Similar Images
Different photo, slightly different cropping.

Similar Images
Different photo, dramatically different lighting.

Alternate Images
Partial Image vs. Full Image

Alternate Images
Color vs. Black-and-White

Alternate Images
Partial Image vs. Much Larger Image

Conservation

Conservation
Repairs and possibly removal of later additions.

Conservation
Analysis even spots dramatic conservation work.

Copies

Copies

Copies

Copies

Copies

Graph Analysis with neo4j

Frick 420
420
Zeri 1583642090
Frick 417
417
?

Frick 347
347
Zeri 12227
33526
Frick 348
348
33525
?

8132a 8132
57129
57134
57130
57138
8131a 8131
?

• http://ejohn.org/research/
• http://ukiyo-e.org/
• https://github.com/jeresig

Correcting Print Data

Japanese Names
• Utagawa Hiroshige
• Ando Hiroshige
• Andō Hiroshige
• Hiroshige
• 歌川広重
• 広重

安⼟土
安堂
安島
安東
安籐
安藤
安道
安達
阿藤
Andō

安藤
andō
antō
anzō
yasuzuka
A many-to-many mapping!

Sharaku Toshusai
東洲斎写楽

Sharaku Toshusai
東洲斎写楽
Is this the family name?
Where are the stress marks?
How do you “split” this name?
Which name parts
correlate?

Tools (all are Node modules!)
• https://github.com/lovell/
hepburn
• https://github.com/jeresig/
node-enamdict
• https://github.com/jeresig/
node-ndlna
• https://github.com/jeresig/
node-romaji-name
ndlnahepburn enamdict
romaji-name

Hepburn
• https://github.com/lovell/
hepburn
• Takes in the English form of a
Japanese word.
• Returns it written in Hiragana or
Katakana (phonetic Japanese
alphabets).
ndlnahepburn enamdict
romaji-name
うたがわひろしげUtagawa Hiroshige

Enamdict
• https://github.com/jeresig/
node-enamdict
• Downloads and queries the
ENAMDICT database
• (A mapping of Japanese proper
names to Hiragana and
English.)
• Used to correct typos and figure
out surname/given name.
ndlnahepburn enamdict
romaji-name

NDLNA
• https://github.com/jeresig/
node-ndlna
• Queries the NDLNA database
• Finds the correct Kanji for an
English name.
• Or the correct English for a
Kanji name.
ndlnahepburn enamdict
romaji-name

ndlnahepburn enamdict
romaji-name

{
"original" : "Sharaku Toshusai (東洲斎写楽 )",
"locale" : "ja",
"kanji" : "東洲斎写楽",
"given" : "Sharaku",
"given_kana" : "しゃらく",
"surname" : "Tōshūsai",
"surname_kana" : "とおしゅうさい",
"surname_kanji" : "東洲斎",
"given_kanji" : "写楽",
"name" : "Tōshūsai Sharaku",
"ascii" : "Tooshuusai Sharaku",
"plain" : "Toshusai Sharaku",
"kana" : "とおしゅうさいしゃらく"
}

Dates
• https://github.com/jeresig/node-yearrange
var yr = require("yearrange");
yr.parse("1877")
// {"start": 1877, "end": 1877}
yr.parse("1847-48")
// {"start": 1847, "end": 1848}
yr.parse("ca. 1810-20s")
// {"start": 1810, "end": 1829, "circa": true}
yr.parse("18th–19th century")
// {"start": 1700, "end": 1899}
yr.parse("Meiji era")
// {"start": 1868, "end": 1912}

Artist Rectification