Archiving photos from the Japanese Shōwa era
Recently, there has been a retro boom, such as Fujifilm’s disposable camera or Instax, and retro artefacts have exploded into the spotlight. In Japan, the Shōwa era has been drawing attention from the younger generation in recent years.
The Shōwa era
In Japan, every emperor is given an era name by the cabinet from a list of candidates created by bureaucrats based on a guideline. For example, we are currently in year number 4 of the Reiwa era, which translates to beautiful harmony.
The Shōwa era was one of the longest eras, lasting from 1926 until 1989. During this era, Japan went through many phases: militarization, destruction due to World War II, and a subsequent dramatic economic revival in the 1980s. This economic revival was one of the most prosperous periods in recent Japan, and people who lived through the Shōwa era now look back to these good old days.
However, they are not the only ones looking at this period. This nostalgia has been growing in recent years, even among the younger generations who didn't experience and live through the Shōwa era. Perhaps as Japan faces economic stagnation, these times of growth and possibility are creating nostalgia amongst a disillusioned youth. Whatever the case may be, as with many other historical periods, people will always want to look back at different periods to learn how people before them lived.
To enable people to do this, we need to be able to store this type of data for hundreds of years, allowing future generations to easily access it. Ideally, we should be able to publish this content permanently and make it easily accessible to all.
Archiving and publishing photos with Akord
There are many ways to upload, backup, and share media, but the main issue is that very few of these can last long enough to outlive us. What if you could rest assured that all the data you archive will persist no matter what happens?
Akord and Arweave allow you to do just that.
You just need to pay upfront for the amount of storage required on Akord, upload the content and rest easy knowing your files are archived permanently. But instead of forgetting about the content, you’ll probably want to share it with others.
Akord also lets you ti do just this: once published to Arweave you can share your files in a stylish gallery view. Your videos and audio files can also be played in your preferred browser without needing people to download them.
Shōwa era on Akord
Many incredible photos from the Shōwa era had been posted to Twitter by a now-removed account. With permission from the account holder, we’ve been archiving and publishing the photos to Akord. Had we not backed up all these photos, many of them might have been completely lost.
You can find this extraordinary collection of nearly 10,000 photos here.
This year, we’ll be releasing Akord Explorer, deployed directly on the Permaweb, and public vaults like this one will be shared and accessed there. What’s more, people will be able to follow these vaults, getting notifications on any activity like new uploads.
Get funding for your archive
We believe Akord’s vaults are uniquely able to help publish and preserve parts of our shared history and culture, and will actively help support projects in this area that align with our values.
If you have an idea for a similar project that’s working to archive artefacts of cultural interest, or are already working on something you believe would be better published on the Permaweb, then please contact us as we may be able to contribute towards the storage costs on Akord and Arweave.
