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There is a book written by my grandfather, a Japanese geologist, in 1944 about ore deposits on the Korean Peninsula. We are researching with a central focus on the book. Funding is required because the amount of work involved is enormous. In order to decipher reference materials that contain old information from the time, it is the task of searching for each information source and basis (textual information, maps, etc.), verifying correctness, correcting and organizing, and compiling it into public materials in multiple languages.

When I saw this book at the first time, I wasn't very interested. It seemed like a useless wearisome book with little information, such as the history of academic research on the peninsula, the names of gold and silver deposits, and short, meager explanations. Moreover, as the author wrote in the preface of the book, due to in view of the times, "there are no diagrams/tables".

I was rather concerned about the lack of content, and started thinking about adding maps and explanations to this book, and opening it with multilingual translations in languages such as English, Hangul/Chosŏn'gŭl, etc.

What immediately came to mind was the task of identifying the location of each deposit. At the time when World War II was coming to an end, many gold and silver deposits (more than 1,000, according to sources) were closed on the peninsula due to changes in the gold supply and demand balance. Since then, there have been major changes over time, and these ore deposits remain literally buried even today. It may be useful to identify them on a topographic map. 

Conveniently, in recent years, thanks to the efforts of many people around the world, both topographical maps and documents describing the locations of ore deposits have been published online as databases and maintained.

However, as soon as we began to investigate the location of the deposits, we realized that there were many obstacles to this task, and it was as complex and time-consuming as the most difficult puzzle. The biggest problem is "changes over time". During the half century from around 1900 to 1944, various things and the Japanese language changed.

For example, place names and phrases may be difficult to correspond between documents due to changes in the operational status of mining areas, the consolidation or establishment of administrative districts, topographic maps, railways, technology, scientific knowledge, laws, etc.

Changes in the Japanese language will affect the multilingualization of sites that discuss and publish research results. If we don't know how to read a place names written in Japanese Kanji, we won't be able to add Japanese Romaji or Hiragana.

For example, the cape ”長山串” that juts out to the west at around 38.1 degrees north latitude on the Korean Peninsula is also the title of a 1/200,000 topographic map section. Each of these 3 kanji characters is still used on a daily basis, but even if you are a native Japanese speaker, there are probably few people who know how to read the place name (in Japanese) made up of these three characters. As summarized on our public site, the basis for a reading can be found by examining multiple sources.

Furthermore, there are errors and illegible parts in the materials, so it is necessary to compare as many as possible.

This project has several phases and goals. Phase 1 is almost completed by 2023.

 Phase 1 (completed):

• Publish online: "Ore Deposit of Chosen (published in 1944)" reprinted version PDF.
• Publish online: Create a database where the Fu/Gun/Tou names in the 1 / 50k topographic maps are included and a search function in Japanese.
• Publish online: Create indexes for 1/200k and 1/50k topographic maps.
• Publish online: Translate 66 section titles of 1 / 200k topographic map into Japanese Romaji and Hangul.
• Offline: Roughly corrects distortions in published public domain topographic maps.

The remaining phases are still vague, but the amount of work is likely to increase exponentially, and it is unlikely that human resources will be able to keep up with the solo work that has been done up until now. It seems like it would be a good idea to first create a multilingual community and then proceed with parallel projects in which many people create the desired outcome. To this end, it may be helpful to introduce open and extensible mechanisms such as wikis, forums, and version control systems.

It's easy for me to create an empty wiki or forum, but I haven't yet figured out how to decide on moderators for each language or subproject, or how to assume server capacity and costs. Regardless of whether or not you have donated this time, please send us your opinions through the inquiry page on our public website.

Phase 2 (just a plan):

• Formulate management plans for communities (wikis and forums) in Hangul/Joseongul and English (and other languages if necessary), recruitment of management staff, server preparation, and field deployment.
• Formulate sub-projects.
• Extract information on towns/dongs/villages (28,000+) from each year of Administrative Ditricts Handbooks, etc., and compile into a database including time series.
• Research the Japanese Hiragana and Hangul notations for titles (700+) and Fu/Gun/Tou of 1 / 50k topographic maps, and add to databases.
• Create databases of 28,000+ 邑(Yū)/面(Men) and 町(Chō)/洞(Dō)/里(Ri) included in 1/50k topographic maps in the Taisho era (around 1917) and the early Showa era (1926-1944).
• Trace boundaries of 道(Dō)/郡(Gun)/面(Men), trig points, major contour lines, etc. frawn on 1 / 50k topographic maps to vector images.
• Formulate/implement a seamless map with time-series from 1/50k topographic maps in the Taisho era (around 1917) and the early Showa era (1926-1944).

キーワード:
朝鮮半島, 地形図, 地名, 日本語, 多言語, 漢字, 鉱床, 金銀, 土田 定次郎, 朝鮮鉱床論, 行政区画, 鉱区一覧, 鉄道, 官報, 図鑑, 物性, 地質調査所, 燃料選鉱研究所, 地質図, 地質系統（層序）, 翻訳, 時系列, 時間軸, 経時変化, 19 世紀前半, 公開資料, 出所の根拠の調査/検証

키워드:
한반도, 지형도, 지명, 일본어, 다국어, 한자, 광상, 금은, 土田 定次郎 (츠치다 사다지로?), 朝鮮鉱床論 (조선광상론?), 행정구획, 광구 일람, 철도, 관보, 도감, 물성, 地質調査所 (지질조사소?), 燃料選鉱研究所 (연료선광연구소?), 지질도, 층서학, 번역, 시계열, 시간축, 시간에 따른 변화, 19세기 전반, 온라인에 공개된 자료, 출처에 대한 근거조사 및 검증

Keywords:
Korean Peninsula, Topographic Map, Place Name, Japanese, Multilingual, Kanji, Ore Deposit, Gold and Silver, 土田 定次郎 (Tsuchida Sadajirō, Sadajiro Tsuchida), 朝鮮鉱床論 (Ore Deposits of Chosen (Korea)?), Administrative districts, Mine list, Railway, Official Gazette, Pictorial books, Physical Properties, 地質調査所 (Geological Survey Institute?), 燃料選鉱研究所 (Fuel Sorting Research Institute?), Geological Map, Stratigraphic charts, Translation, Time series, Time axis, Changes over time, First half of the 19th century, Materials published online, Investigating and verifying the basis of sources