Tōyō Bunko

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Tōyō Bunko (2011)
Title page "Nippon no Iesus"

The Tōyō Bunko ( Japanese 東洋 文庫 ; own, Romanized spelling The Toyo Bunko ) in Tōkyō's Bunkyō district is Japan's largest library for Asian studies in Japan and one of the five largest of its kind worldwide.

Overview

Iwasaki Hisaya (1865–1955), son of the company's founder Iwasaki Yatarō and, after his uncle, the third president of the Mitsubishi group of companies, had studied at Keiō University and the University of Pennsylvania . In 1901 he acquired the approximately 1000 volumes by the Indologist Max Müller and donated it to the library of the University of Tokyo .

In 1917 Iwasaki acquired the private library of George Ernest Morrison (1862–1920). Morrison, a doctor by training, had worked as a correspondent for the London Times in China, where he put together a library of literature on East Asia, which he made available to the public. The Morrison collection was fairly complete as far as China was concerned, but there was no literature on the rest of East Asia. Iwasaki began to fill in the missing part, also acquired specialist literature from Europe and works in ancient Chinese (Kambun).

In 1924, Iwasaki transferred his collection to a foundation, had his own building built and thus enabled more intensive study of East Asia in Japan. After the Second World War there were financial difficulties. Finally in 1948 the library came under the National Parliamentary Library as a branch library . In 1961, at the request of UNESCO, an East Asian research center was added to the library. Many rare works by Western explorers are easily accessible in their digital archive for rare books.

Since 2009 the Bunko has been an independent institution again. In 2011 it was able to move into a new building, which also has a "museum" attached, which presents the holdings to a wider public. In addition to the usual functions of a special library, the Bunko regularly organizes lectures and is active in publishing.

Duration

In 1978 there were 700,000 volumes in Western languages ​​and 4,000 works in Chinese. There are also works in all Asian languages. The holdings in Japanese include an excerpt from the Nihonshoki ( national treasure), a copy of the mission document "NIPPON NO IESUS" (1592), the travel report of John Saris and others. a.

Publications

  • Tōyō Bunko rongyo
  • Tōyō Bunko Obun rongo
  • Tōyō Bunko Wabun kiyo
  • Tōyō Bunko Obun kiyo bessuri
  • Tōyō Bunko kakurui kenkyu iikai kankobutsu
  • Tōyō Bunko ronkan
  • Tōyō Bunko-fuchi UNESCO Toyo Ajia bunka kenku-senta kankobutsu
  • Tōyō Bunko sho-mokuroku
  • Sonota kankobutsu

Remarks

  1. ↑ This collection was lost when the library was destroyed in the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923 .

literature

  • Library leaflet (Japanese)

Web links

Coordinates: 35 ° 43 ′ 52.6 "  N , 139 ° 44 ′ 54.8"  E