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The Edo-Tokyo Museum Library
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 June 2016
Abstract
The Edo-Tokyo Museum Library is the specialist library of a museum that opened in 1993, and that has a particular focus on the history and culture of Tokyo (known in pre-modern times as Edo). It houses a collection of books, documents, secondary materials and microfilms covering history, performing arts, customs and traditions, architecture, literature and much else. The Library’s holdings are a part of the Museum’s collections; we record them and store them, making them available for public consultation on the understanding that they are objects to be treated with care, preserved for future generations, and may also be used in the museum exhibitions. At the same time, we also make a point of collecting art exhibition catalogues, and we have characteristics of an art library. On the eve of our 20th anniversary our operations are due for a review, but here I will concentrate on giving a brief summary of our activities.
Information
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Art Libraries Journal , Volume 38 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue: Art Documentation in Japan , 2013 , pp. 21 - 25
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2013
References
2. Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and the first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 till the Meiji Restoration of 1868.Google Scholar
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5. Books produced before 1868, the start of the Meiji period, are stored in the museum. Books published after 1868, bound in the western style, and microfilms, are stored in the Library. Internal estimates of the numbers of volumes held are (as of March 2012): books, 85,000; catalogues (exhibition catalogues, etc.), 16,000; secondary publications, 180,000; western and Chinesebooks, 1,300; microfilms, 10,000.Google Scholar
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Hokusai, Katsushika, well-known ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period. Perhaps best known for his ukiyo-e series 36 Views of Mount Fuji.Google Scholar
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9. The ALC is a consortium that enables cross searches for museum libraries in the Tokyo metropolitan area. As of April 2012, participating libraries are: the National Museum of Modern Art, the National Art Center, Tokyo, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Yokohama Museum of Art, the National Museum of Western Art, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Tokyo National Museum, the Edo-Tokyo Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura and Hayama. See http://alc.opac.jp/.Google Scholar
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11. NACSIS-CAT is Japan’s largest union catalogue database and is run by the National Institute of Informatics.Google Scholar
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