What Is the Digitization of Cultural Properties? From High-Resolution Replicas, 3D Scanning and Digital Archives to Video Exhibits

Efforts by art museums, museums, temples and shrines to turn cultural properties into digital data for preservation, research, publication and exhibition are spreading. The revised Museum Act, which took effect in April 2023, added creating and publishing “electromagnetic records” of materials to museums’ activities. ColBase, run by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, lists information on about 140,000 works, and its images can be used without application, even commercially, as long as the source is credited. Using official materials from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage and others, this article sets out the publication of images and their terms of use, high-resolution replicas and 3D scanning, and examples of exhibitions using digital technology.

What is the digitization of cultural properties? The Museum Act adds “electromagnetic records” to museums’ activities

The revised Museum Act was promulgated on April 15, 2022, and took effect on April 1, 2023. To the museum activities listed in Article 3 was added “creating and publishing electromagnetic records relating to museum materials.” The Agency for Cultural Affairs’ promulgation notice explains that this refers to digitally archiving materials, managing those archives and publishing them online (materials of the Museum Subdivision of the Council for Cultural Affairs, June 28, 2022).

The same materials also describe the nationwide situation. In the agency-commissioned “Survey on Strengthening the Functions of Museums” (2020), 24.4% of the 1,530 responding museums said they were “implementing” digital archives, 26.4% said they were “considering implementation” and 49.2% had “no plans.” Of the 373 museums that answered about publishing digitized materials, only 9.1% published all of them.

Behind the demand for digitization is the short time for which originals can be shown. The Agency for Cultural Affairs’ “Guidelines for the Handling of the Public Display of National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties” (established 1996, revised June 16, 2023) limit display in principle to a total of 60 days per year. For prints, display is limited to a total of 30 days per year at an illuminance of 50 lux or less, and for paintings, illuminance is set at 100 lux or less. For prints designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties, this means the originals can be exhibited for a total of only 30 days a year.

Disaster preparedness is another aspect. Writing in the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ public relations magazine “Bunkaru” (March 2024), a staff member of the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties noted the possibility that cultural properties themselves, or the original data from research, could be lost to natural disasters and the like, and explained that digital archives can protect part of the information about cultural properties.

Publishing images: ColBase, Japan Search and the key terms of use

“ColBase (Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage)” is a digital archive provided since March 2017 by the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties and renewed in 2020. It allows cross-searching of the collections of the national museums in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Kyushu, the National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties in Tokyo and Nara, and The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan. According to the center, it holds information on about 140,000 works (as of 2026).

The terms of use are summarized in ColBase’s FAQ. As long as the source is credited, images can be used free of charge, without application, for both commercial and noncommercial purposes. Images may also be edited or processed, in which case users must note that they have been modified and avoid any wording that could suggest they were created by the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. An example credit given is “Source: Created by modifying ColBase (https://colbase.nich.go.jp/).”

There are also points to note. Third parties other than the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage may hold copyrights or other rights, and the center asks users to check this on their own responsibility. For higher-resolution images, users should contact the image-use office of the institution that holds the work. A center staff member explained in “Bunkaru” that the terms conform to the Government Standard Terms of Use (version 2.0) and are compatible with CC BY.

Published information is also being used outside the galleries. In August 2022, the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties opened “Bunkatsu Island,” made up of 10 areas inspired by works in the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage’s collections, within the game “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Information on the original cultural properties can be checked on ColBase (“Bunkaru,” May 2023).

“Japan Search” is a gateway for searching across fields. It allows cross-searching of metadata on books, public records, cultural properties, art, broadcast programs and more, with the system operated by the National Diet Library. According to its official website, it links 322 databases and holds 32,885,589 records (as viewed on October 21). The item page for the Tokyo National Museum’s handscroll “Viewing the Whirlpools at Naruto” lists ColBase as the database and the content license as “CC BY.”

High-resolution replicas and “clone cultural properties”: Showing works up close while protecting the originals

The National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties works with companies and organizations to produce replicas of cultural properties using advanced technology. It has been conducting joint research with Canon since October 2018, and as of an April 2026 announcement, had produced high-resolution replicas of 18 works.

The technological foundation is the “Tsuzuri Project,” pursued by Canon and the Kyoto Culture Association since 2007. Combining Canon’s imaging technology with the skills of Kyoto’s traditional craft masters, it has produced replicas of more than 60 works. The replicas have been donated to temples, shrines, local governments, museums and others, and are used for public display and school education.

In spring 2026, high-resolution replicas of Ito Jakuchu’s National Treasure “Colorful Realm of Living Beings,” held by The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan, were shown at the Tokyo National Museum’s Hyokeikan. The display ran from April 17 to May 17, 2026, showing 15 scrolls in each of two periods. According to Canon, a silk base newly developed for this work enabled high color reproduction. The 30 original scrolls will be shown together from Thursday, February 4, 2027, in the special exhibition commemorating the opening of The Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan.

In Room B of the Tokyo National Museum’s Honkan, high-resolution replicas can be seen in the hands-on exhibit “Gateway to Japanese Art.” Replicas made with the latest digital technology and traditional craftsmanship can be viewed in detail without glass cases. For folding screens, a replica of the National Treasure “Scenes in and around Kyoto (Funaki version)” is planned until November 29, followed from December 1 by the National Treasure “Pine Trees” screens. For hanging scrolls, a replica of the National Treasure “Peacock Wisdom King” is on display until around the end of February 2027 (planned).

Among universities, Tokyo University of the Arts has pursued research on “clone cultural properties.” An announcement issued in May 2016 by the university, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology explains the concept. Clone cultural properties are made by combining digital image processing and 2D and 3D printing technology with the traditional techniques and sensibilities of leading artists. The term refers to cultural properties reproduced not only with “the same materials and the same texture” but also with their techniques, materials and cultural background.

The same announcement says they are clearly distinguished from replicas based solely on science and technology, in that the involvement of people with a deep understanding of the original’s value and production techniques is essential. The ceiling mural of the Eastern Great Buddha of Bamiyan, lost in war, was recreated based on survey materials from the 1970s and 3D measurement data, with the imagery of flaked-off sections restored using traditional copying techniques. The No. 6 wall of the murals in the Kondo of Horyu-ji was also restored in 2014 to its appearance before it was damaged by fire.

3D scanning and 8K: Turning form and texture into data

For three-dimensional cultural properties, the form itself is turned into data. The Tokyo National Museum and NHK have worked on the “8K Cultural Properties for Everyone” project since 2020, joined by the National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties from fiscal 2023. Using state-of-the-art scanners and photogrammetry, they create ultra-high-resolution 3DCG “8K cultural properties.” The autumn 2022 exhibition “Museum of the Future,” which used works such as “Scenes in and around Kyoto (Funaki version)” and Horyu-ji’s “Guze Kannon,” drew more than 90,000 visitors.

At the Kyushu National Museum, “Cultural Properties in 8K: Touch and Turn Famous Tea Bowls” continues. When visitors move a tea-bowl-shaped controller made to match the real bowl in shape and weight, they can view a high-resolution image on an 8K monitor from any angle through 360 degrees. From Tuesday, October 27, 2026, to Sunday, February 7, 2027, it features the Important Cultural Property “Oil-spot Tenmoku” tea bowl, whose data was created under the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ fiscal 2021 project to promote the regional deployment of locally connected cultural assets.

Name: Cultural Properties in 8K: Touch and Turn Famous Tea Bowls
Dates: Tuesday, July 1, 2025 – Sunday, March 28, 2027
Venue: Kyushu National Museum, 4F Cultural Exchange Exhibition Gallery
Admission: General ¥700 and others (during special exhibitions, can also be viewed with a special exhibition ticket stub)
Organizer: Kyushu National Museum
Official website: https://cpcp.nich.go.jp/modules/r_exhibition/index.php?controller=dtl&id=48

For VR, the Tokyo National Museum had the “TNM & TOPPAN Museum Theater” on the first basement floor of the Toyokan. VR images were projected onto a large screen 6.6 m wide and 3.7 m high in live performances guided by a navigator, with a capacity of 90. Of the VR work “Kofuku-ji National Treasure Ashura,” re-screened in 2025 for the first time in about 10 years, TOPPAN explained that it recreated the figure using data obtained through 3D measurement and color measurement technology, together with high-resolution photography. The theater ended operations on March 29, 2026, with the VR work “Scenes in and around Kyoto (Funaki version)” as its final program (our article on immersive exhibitions at museums).

There are also moves to record exhibition spaces themselves. On October 13, 2026, Nikon-Trimble announced that it had donated the 3D laser scanner “Trimble X9,” point cloud processing software and other equipment to the Tokyo National Museum. The museum has mainly recorded its exhibitions with two-dimensional information such as photographs, which made it difficult to share layouts, heights and depth three-dimensionally. It plans to use the equipment to record installations before and after exhibition changes and when lending works overseas, and to create digital archives of its buildings and facilities.

Exhibits that show works digitally: From the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures to ukiyo-e video

At the Tokyo National Museum’s Gallery of Horyuji Treasures, the “Digital Gallery of Horyuji Treasures” is open. On the “Digital Wall,” which uses large 86-inch monitors, visitors can enlarge and rotate images of about 150 of the treasures donated by Horyu-ji to see them in detail. In a digital book, 3D models and images of 79 treasures in the museum’s collection are overlaid on the “Gohomotsu Zue,” a record of the public exhibition of temple treasures that Horyu-ji held in Edo in 1842 (Tenpo 13).

Between the monitors are wall reliefs that render details of the donated treasures using 3D printing and UV printing, which visitors can touch. The content is available in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. It is a renewal of a hands-on corner opened in January 2023, with the cooperation of Horyu-ji and digital content produced by Sabia Inc.

Name: Digital Gallery of Horyuji Treasures
Dates: Tuesday, March 10, 2026 – Wednesday, March 31, 2027
Venue: Tokyo National Museum, Gallery of Horyuji Treasures, Mezzanine
Admission: Requires admission to the Tohaku collection exhibition or to a special exhibition currently on view (valid on the day of viewing only)
Organizers: Tokyo National Museum, National Center for the Promotion of Cultural Properties
Official website: https://cpcp.nich.go.jp/modules/r_exhibition/index.php?controller=dtl&id=52

“Gateway to Japanese Art” in Room B of the Honkan also features “Tohaku Wonder Wall: Ichigo Ichie,” in which masterpieces come to life on a 14-meter-wide wall. The museum’s collection numbers more than 120,000 items, but about 3,000 cultural properties are on display on any given day. When visitors hold up a hand to choose a theme, the wall recommends one work they are sure to encounter in the galleries that day. It was produced by Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd.

Name: Gateway to Japanese Art
Dates: Tuesday, June 30, 2026 – Wednesday, March 31, 2027
Venue: Tokyo National Museum, Honkan, Room B
Admission: Free (entry with a ticket for the Tohaku collection exhibition or a special exhibition currently on view [valid on the day only])
Official website: https://cpcp.nich.go.jp/modules/r_exhibition/index.php?controller=dtl&id=53

In ukiyo-e, too, exhibitions that project high-resolution data at large scale continue. The Tokyo National Museum’s special exhibition “Utagawa Hiroshige: Edo’s Best Angles” (Tuesday, September 29 – Sunday, December 20, 2026) includes an ultra-high-definition video corner, showing the beauty of the colors in Hiroshige’s works on large monitors. Details of the exhibition are in our article on the Hiroshige exhibition.

The MOA Museum of Art in Atami, Shizuoka, will hold “Hokusai Red Fuji & Blue Wave: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” from Friday, February 26 to Friday, April 2, 2027. Using digital material shot as 150-megapixel high-resolution images, it projects the “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” on a large screen. It also plans a display comparing the prints with photographs of the present-day scenery at the places they depict.

There are also immersive exhibitions that animate the lines and colors of ukiyo-e with 3DCG and project them into space. The difference between how woodblock prints work and methods of digital reconstruction is explained in our explainer on what it means to “animate” ukiyo-e, and the care required when staging light at cultural properties in our article on projection mapping on cultural properties and the care it requires.

Editor’s perspective

Laying out image publication, replicas, 3D scanning and video exhibits side by side shows that data, once created, is used in many ways. High-resolution images become replicas, enlargements on monitors and material for projection, while 3D scanning data becomes VR and touchable exhibits. ColBase’s permission of even commercial use with only a source credit can be seen as a design that opens such uses beyond the museum.

On the other hand, materials of the Museum Subdivision of the Council for Cultural Affairs state that digital archiving does not replace the preservation of physical materials. Tokyo University of the Arts distinguishes clone cultural properties from replicas based solely on science and technology because it considers the involvement of people with a deep understanding of the original’s value and techniques indispensable. Just as “Gateway to Japanese Art” recommends one real work visitors can encounter in the galleries that day, the question is whether digital experiences can be designed as gateways leading to the real thing.

Frequently asked questions

Can ColBase images be used commercially?

According to ColBase’s FAQ, as long as the source is credited, they can be used free of charge, without application, for both commercial and noncommercial purposes. They may also be modified, in which case the modification must be stated. Because third parties may hold rights, users are asked to check on their own responsibility.

Why are the periods for seeing original ukiyo-e so short?

The Agency for Cultural Affairs’ “Guidelines for the Handling of the Public Display of National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties” limit prints designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties to a total of 30 display days per year at an illuminance of 50 lux or less. Works at high risk of fading or material deterioration are to be kept in storage outside display periods.

If works are digitized, do the originals no longer need to be preserved?

Materials of the Museum Subdivision of the Council for Cultural Affairs (June 2022) list points to keep in mind when promoting digital archiving. One is that “it does not replace the preservation of physical materials, and it is inappropriate to dispose of physical materials on the grounds that they have been archived.”

Where can high-resolution replicas and 8K exhibits be seen?

Among those introduced in this article, “Gateway to Japanese Art” and the “Digital Gallery of Horyuji Treasures” at the Tokyo National Museum run until March 31, 2027. “Cultural Properties in 8K: Touch and Turn Famous Tea Bowls” at the Kyushu National Museum runs until March 28, 2027. All can be seen with each museum’s admission ticket.

Articles organized by each stage of planning are gathered in our guide for those planning projection mapping and light events.

*Information as of October 21, 2026. Please check the official websites for the latest information.

*Top image: The VR work “Kofuku-ji National Treasure Ashura,” which recreates the Ashura statue in VR (general supervision: Kofuku-ji, head temple of the Hosso sect; supervision: Hiroaki Kaneko and Kakichi Suzuki; production and copyright: The Asahi Shimbun Company and TOPPAN Inc.) (from TOPPAN Holdings Inc.’s press release)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on official announcements and public materials from each institution and organizer (as of October 21, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team

A note from the publisher

*Disclosure: Among the examples featured in this article, HITOHATA, INC., an affiliate of HITOHATA ASSOCIATION, the general incorporated association that operates TOKYO ART SPHERE, was involved in the video of the painted cedar doors at Daiju-ji’s special nighttime viewing (About us).

There has also been a case of using video to show painted cedar doors that are normally not on view. At its special nighttime viewing in January 2025, Daiju-ji in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, used high-resolution digital data of 22 Important Cultural Property painted cedar doors for the first time, recreating with projection mapping the world of door paintings that had not been shown publicly for more than 40 years (HITOHATA, INC. announcement). It was organized by the Okazaki Nighttime Economy Promotion Council and subsidized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in fiscal 2024.

HITOHATA, INC., an affiliate of HITOHATA ASSOCIATION, the general incorporated association that operates TOKYO ART SPHERE, plans, directs, produces and operates projection mapping at National Treasures, Important Cultural Properties, World Heritage Sites and urban landmarks, as well as immersive exhibitions. Consultations also cover staging and equipment tailored to the conditions of a venue and projection surface. Inquiries, including those at the stage before a budget is set, are accepted through HITOHATA, INC.’s contact form (which has an option for local government and public projects). The company’s past work is introduced on HITOHATA, INC.’s project portfolio page.