Reserch and Cataloguing of Old Japanese Books

2000 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 10041035
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A).
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: 国文学
• Research Institution: RIKKYO UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: WATANABE Kenji RIKKYO UNIV., COLLEGE OF ARTS, PROFESSOR, 文学部, 教授 (00123761)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ICHIKO Natsuo OCHANOMIZU UNIV., LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, PROFESSOR, 文教育学部, 教授 (90131515) ; IBI Takashi SEIKEI UNIV., COLLEGE OF ARTS, PROFESSOR, 文学部, 教授 (70119329) ; FUKUDA Chizuru TOKYO TORITSU UNIV., COLLEGE OF ARTS, ASSIST.PROFESSOR, 文学部, 助教授 (10260001) ; KOMINE Kazuaki RIKKYO UNIV., COLLEGE OF ARTS, PROFESSOR, 文学部, 教授 (70127827) ; KIGOSHI Osamu KNAZAWA UNIV., COLLEGE OF ARTS, PROFESSOR, 文学部, 教授 (10109093)
• Project Period (FY): 1998 – 2000
• Keywords: L.C. / Japanese Classic / Honda Seisyo / Japanese Literature / Wasan / Chinese classic / Japanese Culuture / paperer printing

Research Abstract

Through a series of surveys, from the first from late August to early September of 1997, to the fifth from late August to early September of 2000, we have recorded the contents and condition of pre-Meiji Japanese materials in the American Library of Congress. In the l980s under the direction of former American Library of Congress librarian Mr. Honda, bibliographies of materials on Japanese literature and culture, and of materials related to Japanese arithmetic, we released to the public. These bibliographies listed 630 items on literature and 450 items on arithmetic, but our surveys covered materials not addressed to this point that fall outside of Honda's bibliographies.
This project team based its survey both on handwritten data and that directly entered into a computer. The materials covered literature (prose and poetry classical literature), works relating to politics, law, economics, education, medicine, agriculture, and commerce, materials pertaining to arts, theater, and leisure arts, and materials related to reference works, book collections, Shinto, Buddhism, and linguistics, and rare books and old documents. This survey resulted in a collection of data on a total of 3200 items not included in Honda's biblography from before 1868.
As the items in the Honda bibliography had been moved somewhere other than the Jefferson Building and the John Adams Building, we did not include them in this survey. Eventually, we are planning to complete a printed general bibliography and an online database of all English and Japanese materials.
While this survey nominatively covers Japanese materials created and printed before 1868, it also includes Chinese classic materials printed in same time. Also, it includes things that might not otherwise be considered books such as one-page pamphlets as deemed necessary.