This presentation proposes a TEI-compliant structured model for kibyōshi, a genre of classical Japanese books, through the integration of TEI encoding and IIIF image resources.

Kusazōshi were illustrated fiction published in Japan from the mid-seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Among them, kibyōshi emerged as a distinct subgenre in the late eighteenth century. Each work typically consists of a short narrative of approximately 10 to 30 pages. With the exception of the preface and postscript, nearly all pages are illustrated, and the main text and dialogue are written in the blank spaces of the images, creating a close interdependence between visual and textual elements.
Kibyōshi incorporates diverse themes—including theater, folktales, moral instruction, waka poetry, customs, and Buddhism—expressed through both image and text. Despite their limited length, these works contain remarkable thematic variety.
Although the TEI Guidelines provide various methods for encoding relationships between images and text, these approaches have not been sufficiently systematized. As a result, multiple encoding practices coexist, hindering interoperable processing and viewer development.
This presentation reports on a practical implementation of TEI-based structuring for kibyōshi in conjunction with IIIF image resources. Image information was encoded using elements such as <facsimile>, <graphic>, and <surface>, while specific regions were defined with <zone> and linked to textual components via the @facs attribute, enabling bidirectional referencing.
This implementation demonstrates that correspondences between image regions and textual elements can be consistently encoded within the TEI framework. The resulting model offers a reusable approach applicable to other early modern illustrated works in which image and text function in a mutually complementary manner.