ACADEMIA Letters Scientifc study advancements: Analysing Japanese historical materials using archaeobotany and digital humanities Ayako Shibutani, Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, Japan Over the last two decades, the study of starch grain assemblages in archaeological contexts has become progressively widespread across East Asia ( Shibu tani, 2017b). Similarly in Japanese archaeology, extensive starch data has been accumulated from stone artefacts (e.g. Kamijo, 2013; Kobayashi & Kamijo, 2012; Shibu tani, 2017b, 2018; Shibu tani, Aono, & Na gaya, 2015; Ya mamoto, Shibu tani, & Kamijo, 2016), pottery residues ( Shibu tani, 2007, 2014, 2017a; Shoda, Mat su tani, Ku nikita, & Shibu tani, 2011; Ya mamoto et al., 2016), wooden materials ( Kamijo, 2014), soil sediments ( Aono, Shibu tani, Soeda, & Na gaya, 2021), and human and animal dental calculus ( Shi mono & Tak e naka, 2014; Ya mazaki, Shibu tani, & Yoneda, 2021). These data have mainly been emphasis placed on determination of the tool functions, iden- tifcation of processed plants and feld crops, and reconstruction of the past plant foods and dietary habits. Such microbotanical methods are now applied to analyse paper components and mixtures of Japanese historical materials. In Japan, papers used for historical documents and diaries have mainly been studied in palaeography, history, and the conservation of cultural property ( Shibu tani, 2019a). These studies have focused on ancient and medieval materials, but in recent years there have been promoted the classifcation of materials through microscopic observations and the analysis of early-modern documents ( Shibu tani, 2020). Any surveys of Japanese historical materials are essentially non-destructive, and their papers are observed with the transmitted and refected lights of microscopes, mostly with 100 times magnifcation (e.g. Okawa, 2017; Tomita, 2013, 2014, 2016; Yuyama, 2010, 2017). These microscopic observations aim to examine mor- phological features such as thickness and density of the fbres, the existence and quantity of Academia Letters, January 2022 Corresponding Author: Ayako Shibutani, ashibutani@hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp Citation: Shibutani, A. (2022). Scientifc study advancements: Analysing Japanese historical materials using archaeobotany and digital humanities. Academia Letters, Article 4628. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4628. 1 ©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0