LIBRARY

Reading Room

Open: 9:15- 17:00 (Monday through Friday)

Those who may use the Library include:

1)staff and students of the University of Tokyo.
2)those officially introduced by the governmental or educational institutions.
3)those introduced by a member of the Institute.

Collections

MINAMOTO,Yoritomo Document, dated 1185(Documents of the Shimazu family)

A schooner following to HMS Providence by Broughton, dated 1796
(Documents of the Shimazu family)

All the activities of the Institute are based on its large collection of source-material.
The diligent search for such material has been going on since the earliest days of the Institute's work, not only in Japan itself but also in those foreign countries with which Japan had commercial or cultural relations in former times.

Source-material thus discovered, if not acquired by the Institute, is copied either photographically or by hand. The Institute possesses a great number of exact, full-size tracings made with brush and India ink or coloring materials on thin Japanese paper, some of which are real works of art.

Many original documents, including seven registered national Important Cultural Properties, are also in the possession of the Institute.
One notable collection comprises practically all the documents of the old family of Shimazu, the feudal lord of the province of Satsuma, now Kagoshima prefecture.

Reference

The Library of the Institute, consisting of sources together with suitable reference works, comprises over four hundred thousand items.
Catalogs, sixteen volumes of which have been published, furnish a guide to the collection.
The library is now serving a catalog database of non-printed materials held by it.

The bibliographical data of books cataloged since 1991 is retrievable through JBCAT/NACSIS-IR or OPAC(The University of Tokyo Library Union Catalog).

April 1995, November 1995,January 2000;