Asian Historical Architecture
This website primarily relies on donors for image contributions, with over 14,000 images of Asian historical architecture from 732 sites in 20 countries.
The John C. and Susan L. Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Asian Art contains nearly 300,000 original slides and photographs—photographic documentation of art and architecture throughout Asia ranging from approximately 2500 B.C.E. to the present, as well as pieces found in most major Asian, European, and American museums.
Digital Scrolling Paintings Project—Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago
This website includes works of art from China and Japan by agreements with collaborating institutions. The Scroll Archive is designed with interactive elements to allow accessibility to the complete works of art and can be searched by title, artist, historical period, and museum collection.
Online Museum Resources on Asian Art
This site is a gateway to museum sites, specifically online exhibitions, according to subject area or topic, time period, country/region, and religion.
This website includes: associations, exhibitions, articles, and galleries.
佛學數位圖書館暨博物館 Digital Buddhist Library and Museum
International Dunhuang Project
230,000 images of various types related to Dunhuang and the Silk Road.
Buddhist Art WWW Virtual Library
Chinese Art: Museum Websites
故宮博物院 The Palace Museum, Beijing, China (Chinese and English)
國立故宮博物院 National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, and other languages)
中国国家博物馆 National Museum of China (Simplified Chinese and English)
上海博物館 Shanghai Museum
中国美术馆 National Art Museum of China
The National Art Museum of China is a national museum dedicated to the collection, research, and exhibitions of modern and contemporary artistic works in China
上海当代艺术馆 The Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (MOCA Shanghai)
MOCA Shanghai is the first nonprofit, independently operated contemporary art institution in Shanghai.
Chinese Art & Culture
Chinese Painting & Calligraphy: Seattle Art Museum Online Scholarly Catalogue
This online catalogue, featuring Chinese painting and calligraphy from SAM’s collection, is designed to facilitate scholarly dialogue. Readers are encouraged to post comments about the works of art and the accompanying essays, as well as to formulate answers to questions that we put forward under the section “Questions for Thought.”
Rare book image search system (Traditional Chinese and English)
Bronze and stone rubbings (Traditional Chinese)
Peking University Rare Books & Rubbings Database (Simplified Chinese)
Harvard University Library Virtual Collection: Chinese Rubbings Collection
Song and Yuan Dynasty Painting and Calligraphy 宋元書畫
Images of 85 artworks (mostly paintings) from the Song and Yuan Dynasties (10th–14th century).
Innovations in Chinese Painting (1850–1950) (Ohio State University, Columbus)
Tse-Tsung Chow collection of Chinese scrolls and fan paintings
This site, from the University of Wisconsin, contains over 120 calligraphic and painted Chinese scrolls and fans from the 18th through the 20th century.
Art Scene China
One of the premier Chinese art galleries in China, Art Scene China specializes in Chinese contemporary art by both emerging and well-established Chinese artists.
中国西南少數民族資料庫 Ethnological Collection of Southwestern China, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (Traditional Chinese)
Tsinghua University, Digital Library on Chinese Architecture (Simplified Chinese)
台灣美術展覽會資料庫 Taiwan Art Exhibition (1927–1943)
This database contains images of 2,144 artworks from 16 art exhibitions during Japanese colonial period.
中国艺术新闻网 Chinese Art News
China Heritage Quarterly
This publication covers recent developments and scholarship in areas related to China's heritage, culture, history, and society; previously published as
China Heritage Newsletter.
Japanese Art: Museum Websites
東京国立博物館 Tokyo National Museum
京都国立博物館 Kyoto National Museum
奈良国立博物館 Nara National Museum
九州国立博物館 Kyushu National Museum
国立歴史民俗博物館 National Museum of Japanese History
The museum is digitizing its primary documents and compiling bibliographies and a collection catalogue; mostly accessible without restriction.
東京国立近代美術館 National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
東京都現代美術館 Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
e-Museum is a database containing national treasures and important cultural properties of national museums in Japan.
Japanese Art & Culture
浮世絵リンク集 Ukiyo-e Link
This site provides links to museums and institutions with ukiyo-e collections.
日本映画データベース Japanese Film Database
Over 35,000 titles of films made in Japan since 1899 are searchable by title, cast, directors, and year. Also lists related reference books.
日文研データベース International Research Center for Japanese Studies
This site provides a variety of the center's databases for historical resources; strong in visual information.
幕末明治期日本古写真画像データベース: An Image Database of Old Photographs of Japan
Searchable archive of 5,416 photographs of Nagasaki and other parts of Japan taken during the latter half of the 19th century.
Japan Artists Information Directory
JAIRO (Japanese Institutional Repositories Online) in
Japanese and in
English. This database allows the user to search across Japanese research institutes such as universities for academic information (including journal articles, theses, dissertations, departmental bulletins, and research papers). As of October 2008, JAIRO included 84 institutional repositories with over 500,000 entries.
JAANUS is an online dictionary of Japanese architecture and art history terminology. The dictionary contains approximately 8,000 terms related to traditional Japanese architecture and gardens, painting, sculpture, and art-historical iconography from approximately the 1st century A.D. to the end of the Edo period (1868). It is searchable in English and Romanized Japanese.
Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies
This is an international academic journal in the social sciences and humanities that publishes research and scholarly writing on all issues related to contemporary Japan. Use the keyword search for information on particular subject.
NIPPONIA is a quarterly web magazine that introduces modern Japan (Art and Entertainment section) to people all over the world.
Korean Art: Museum Websites
國立中央博物館 National Museum of Korea
國立慶州博物館 Artworks collection of Silla Dynasty (57 BC-AD 935)
國立扶餘博物館 Artworks collection of Baekje Dynasty (18 BC- AD 660)
國立古宮博物館 Artworks collection of Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) and the imperial family of the Korean Empire
湖巖美術館 Ho-Am Art Museum (Korean and English)
A private Korean art collection including Buddhist art, ceramics, painting, and books by Lee Byung-chull, the founder of the Samsung Group.
湖林博物館 Horim Museum (Korean and English)
This site provides access to a private Korean art collection including ceramics, painting, and books.
Korean Art & Culture
Korea National Heritage Online (Korean)
Kim DaljJin Art Research and Consulting (Korean) Korean Art movement and Index
Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies (Korean and English)
Through the preservation, organization, and examination of the materials at the Kyujanggak, this institute focuses on the research of Korean history and culture.
The Association of Art History (AAH) (Korean and English)
This is the website of the AAH—a purely academic party contributing to the study of Korean, East Asian and European art history. Includes an introduction, information on members and membership, the journal
The Study of Art History and the research data room of art history.
The Korean Art History Connection (Korean and English)
This site is maintained by professors and students in the departments of history, education, and art history at Hong-Ik University, Seoul. For researchers who are interested in Korean art history information, bibliographies, and special services.
KOBIZ is the Internet’s top English resource for all things Korean cinema.
KJ (Korea Journal)
Korea Journal made concerted efforts to disseminate original and outstanding research and book reviews as a premier academic journal.
Southeast Asian Art
Freer/Sackler Southeast Asian Art Collection, The Smithsonian’s Museums of Asian Art
This site provides access to images, library resources, including research articles and bibliographies, webinars, and resources for schools.
Tanoto Foundation Centre for Southeast Asian Arts at NAFA
Physically located in Singapore, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts archives resources dedicated to the study of Southeast Asian art. You can search the library catalogue at this site, but to view digitized documents, you must be a member.
Islamic Heritage Project
This is a digitized collection of manuscripts, maps, and texts from regions including Southeast Asia, spanning the 10th to 20th centuries.
South Central China and Tibet: Hotspot of Diversity
This site provides access to digitized manuscripts and images of expeditions to South Central China and Tibet, documenting the area’s ethnographic and biological diversity.
Southeast Asian Images & Texts
This site is a great digital collection of primary and secondary resources covering Philippines, Cambodia, and Laos.
Digital Library of Lao Manuscripts
Users can access images of almost 12,000 Laotian texts covering several eras and regimes.
École Française D’Extrême-Orient
This is a great site for digitized Khmer manuscripts.
The Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (JIATS)
JIATS is an online, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal. JIATS is an official publication of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS), which convenes the world’s major conference for Tibetan studies.