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Early Modern Japanese Literature Research Guide: Image Databases

created and maintained by William Fleming and Haruko Nakamura

Prints

ARC prints

 

ARC shunga database

Nichibunken Ehon (enpon/shunpon) dētabēsu 艶本資料データベース

 

Waseda enpaku

Nishikie (above)

MFA Boston

Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG)

 

Collection includes many Edo-peiod (and later) woodblock prints

Rare Books

NIJL Shozō wakosho, maikuro/dejitaru mokuroku dētabēsu 所蔵和古書・マイクロ/デジタル目録データベース (Database of NIJL-Held Rare Books in Microfilm and Digital Form)

A catalog of both digitized rare books owned by NIJL and their vast microform holdings (which are not digitized and can only be viewed onsite in the reading room).

 

Moreover, a full list of NIJL’s digitized rare books (which can be limited by keyword) appears here: http://base1.nijl.ac.jp/~micro/wakosho_list.html

 

Waseda daigaku kotenseki sōgō dētabēsu 早稲田大学古典籍総合データベース (Waseda University Integrated Database of Chinese and Japanese Classics)

 

Nichibunken (see details above)

 

Ehon (enpon/shunpon) dētabēsu 艶本資料データベース (Database of Japanese Erotic Books)

This large digital cabinet of curiosities (some 665 entries including both erotic books and prints, almost all from the Edo period) is kept under careful virtual lock and key.  Would-be users may apply for a user ID and password; these typically arrive by e-mail within a day or two.

 

Chirimenbon dētabēsu ちりめん本データベース (Database of Chirimenbon)

High resolution scans of Nichibunken’s collection of chirimenbon, woodblock-printed softcover editions of Japanese legends and children’s stories (many based on Edo-period versions) published in Western languages during the Meiji period.

 

Kojiruien

 

Kinsei kijin den

See above; does not include images of the woodblock-printed text, but does include the accompanying illustrations of the figures themselves.

 

Heian Kyōto meisho zue dētabēsu 平安京都名所図会データベース

full text and images from original woodblock edition

 

Ritsumeikan Art Research Center (ARC)

ARC 書籍閲覧システム (ARC Materials Browsing System)

 

 

 

Kokuritsu kokkai toshokan dejitaruka shiryō: kotenseki shiryō (kichōsho nado) 国立国会図書館デジタル化資料―古典籍資料(貴重書等) (National Diet Library Digitized Rare Books and Other Materials)

 

University of Tokyo

 

Denshiban Katei bunko 電子版霞亭文庫 (Digitized Katei Bunko)

1,159 works of Edo-period fiction, including ukiyozōshi, sharebon, otogizōshi, kibyōshi, and materials related to the theater and oral storytelling.

 

Sōkōdō bunko zenbun eizō shiryōko 雙紅堂文庫全文影像資料庫 (Sōkōdō Bunko Full-Image Archive)

High-resolution images of the holdings of the Sōkōdō bunko at the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia.  The collection comprises 550 early modern editions (some 3000 or so volumes in all) of Ming and Qing literature formerly owned by the eminent sinologist Nagasawa Kikuya.

 

Kindai dejitaru raiburarī 近代デジタルライブラリー (Digital Library from the Meiji Era)

A massive digital archive of books from the Meiji period (and some later); includes many late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century editions of premodern and early modern texts.

 

JapanKnowledge+ Edo meisho zue 江戸名所図会 (includes full text and images from original woodblock edition)

 

Google Books

 

Digital Archive

Maps

UC Berkeley

 

University of British Columbia

 

Nichibunken

 

http://tois.nichibun.ac.jp/chizu/menu.html

 

Nagasaki

221 old maps of Nagasaki.