It’s always encouraging when we see modern technology being used to preserve important things from the past. A few months back we wrote about Japan’s Samurai Art application, which was used to present a 20 meter long scroll on the iPad.
A new collaboration between Mainichi Shimbun and Excite Japan is doing something similar, presenting special editions of the newspaper from all the way back in the Meiji and Taisho eras. These ‘extras’ or Gogai include accounts of important historical events like the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War and the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
Besides the special editions, there are a number of old photographs included with the application as well. There are 15 from the Meiji period and eight from the Taisho period.
The application itself is free, but only the content from the Taisho era is available to start. If you’d like access to the material from the Meiji period, it requires 1200 yen (about $15)
Ideally I’d like to see an application like this make all its contents available for free, especially when you consider its value in areas like education. But regardless of price, it’s good to see such material make the jump to digital form — hopefully ensuring that it will remain with us for a very long time into the future.
You can find out more on Mainichi’s Gogai page, or head on over to the app store and get the application (Japanese language only).
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