Rare Materials Digital Archive tops one million published images (12 December 2018)

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On 12 December, Kyoto University Library Network added 938 titles to its Rare Materials Digital Archive: 477 titles of "Collage on Folding Screens", featuring writings by 19th-century royalists from the "Meiji Restoration Collection", and 461 items including Korean classical manuscripts and books from the "Kawai Collection". The latter were digitized in cooperation with Korea University.

As of 12 December 2018, the number of titles publicly available from the Archive stood at 11,350, exceeding the one million mark at 1,047,928 images.

477 titles of "Collage on Folding Screens" in the "Meiji Restoration Collection"

Viscount Yajiro Shinagawa (1843-1900) collected materials related to the Meiji Restoration and stored them in the Sonjo-do hall. These materials were written and painted by royalists, and include letters, petitions, memorandums, paintings, and poems about their imminent deaths. Shinagawa organized and pasted them on folding screens for long-term preservation. There are 23 such screens in existence (21 with six panels each and two with two panels), all preserved by the Kyoto University Library as the Meiji Restoration Collection. In the Digital Archive, each material can be viewed both independently and as a part of the folding screen on which it is pasted.

Collage on Folding Screen No 757

Collage on Folding Screen No 773

461 titles including Korean classics manuscripts and books from the "Kawai Collection"

The "Kawai Collection" consists of Korean classical manuscripts and books collected by Dr Hirotami Kawai (1872-1918), scholar of Korean national and economic history. Kyoto University purchased the collection from the Kawai family in 1919, and has since preserved it as one of its main collections. The included materials range from official and private records, to documents related to politics, economy, religion, and customs, making it a highly valuable and indispensable resource for studying Korean social and cultural history, especially as it relates to public finance. The newly published 461 titles include these and other items digitized by Kyoto University Library in collaboration with the KyotoU Institute for Research in Humanities and Korea University.

Kaisa zenzu (Kawai Collection)

Myouhou rengekyou (Other Rare Materials)

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