Old and Rare Japanese Books in US Collections

Please do not remove this page

Old and Rare Japanese Books in U.S. Collections

Sewell, Robert G. https://scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/discovery/delivery/01RUT_INST:ResearchRepository/12643382950004646?l#13643525030004646

Sewell, R. G. (1978). Old and Rare Japanese Books in U.S. Collections. College and Research Libraries, 39(3), 197–206. https://doi.org/10.7282/T3WM1BS6

This work is protected by copyright. You are free to use this resource, with proper attribution, for research and educational purposes. Other uses, such as reproduction or publication, may require the permission of the copyright holder. Downloaded On 2021/09/26 14:20:31 -0400 ROBERT 6. SEWELL

Old and Rare Japanese Books in U.S. Collections

This article discusses various patterns for organization of rare and old Japanese hooks in U.S. academic and research libraries. Criteria for collections of rare and specialized materials, storage and access, and hiblio- graphic control were investigated in major university and research libraries and art museums. Because each institution has established its own patterns of organization and criteria for rarity and special status, it is impossible, and probably unnecessary, to obtain agreement on universal and standard criteria for Japanese rare 19ooks. However, the lack of adequate bibliographic control for a large portion of this material is a matter of serious concern.

THE INTEGRATION OF EAST ASIAN at several major university libraries- LANGUAGE MATERIALS into Western li- California (Berkeley), Chicago, Illinois, In- braries presents a variety of problems: diana, Harvard (Harvard-Yenching, Fogg Should the books be shelved with Western Art Museum), Yale, Columbia, and language materials or located in a separate Michigan-and the New York Public Li- facility? Should catalog cards for East Asian brary, Library of Congress, Art Institute materials be filed in a general library card and Field Museum in Chicago, Museum of catalog, in a separate card catalog, or both? Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan These are basic questions that libraries with Museum of Art, New York. East Asian holdings must decide. The situa- tion becomes more complex when dealing CRITERIA FOR RARE AND SPECIALIZED with rare and old books and manuscripts, COLLECTIONS which are frequently given further spe- The first areas of concern are the criteria cialized treatment because of their unusual for establishing rare and specialized collec- characteristics. tions of older Japanese materials. The sur- This article will analyze how U.S. librar- veys of East Asian collections in American ies and museums have defined, organized, libraries, which Tsuen-hsuin Tsien has permitted access to, and established biblio- undertaken for the Association for Asian graphic control over collections of rare and Studies' Committee on East Asian Libraries, pre-modern Japanese books and manu- periodically have included information on scripts. It is based on a study of collections rare materials and have provided an important starting point for the present study.' Tsien has established three standards of rar- Robert 6. Sewell is Japanese bibliographer, ity: pre-1600 imprints, manuscripts, and Far Eastern Library, University of Illinois at fine printing. The present study works Urbana-Champaign. This article is a revision of a within a broader framework, which encom- paper given at a meeting of the Association of Asian Studies in Toronto, Canada, in March passes Japanese materials specifically desig- 1976. The preliminary research for this study was nated as "rare" as well as other concen- facilitated by research and travel grants from the trations of Japanese materials that have not University of Illinois Library and the University been so defined but have unusual and of Illinois Center for Asian Studies. noteworthy characteristics. These charac- 198 / College G Research Libruries * Mny 1978 teristics include format, early publication dates, and special subject concentrations. Besides being located in East Asian librar- Format often establishes rarity or special ies, Japanese materials are found in special status. Manuscripts or works in hand-script international collections and in art museums. and scrolls are almost always placed in spe- Date of Publication cial custody in the library world. The reasons such items find their way into the rare For libraries, date of publication is the book category or special custody are he- simplest means of determining what is cause of their uniqueness (manuscripts are, "rare." Difficulties in precisely identifying after all, one of a kind) and the difficulty of the publication date in Japanese books and shelving their irregular formats. Colurnbia manuscripts are numerous. Frequently University's East Asian Library and the dates do not appear in publications earlier Orientalia Division of the Library of Con- than the mid-seventeenth century. When gress keep their copies of nam-ehon, or dates are provided, later copies of manu- Nara Picture Books (a kind of illustrated scripts, and later impressions and newly manuscript), in locked file cabinets. calved blocks for wood block printed books, Columbia University has also utilized may retain the original date of publication. format considerations for defining another Whatever the technical problems involved special collection of Japanese books. Having in date identification, libraries generally es- no rare book category per se, Columbia's tablish a cutoff date for rarity .2 East Asian Libraly places all of its wclhon, Among U.S. libraries that have such or books in traditional Japanese binding dates, there is little agreement. The East (double leaves stitched together with thread Asiatic Library at the University of Califor- on the right-hand side), in a locked cage nia, Berkeley, has the earliest cut-off date within its stacks. This segregation of tccrhon for rarity among U.S. collections: 1660. The is unusual among U.S. collections. Far Eastern Library of the University of The East Asiatic Library at Berkeley Washington describes works antedating maintains two collections of maps and man- 1700 as rare and the University of Illinois uscripts that combine both rare and nonrare Rare Book Room designates pre-1701 materials in order to keep works of similar Japanese imprints rare, whereas Harvard- format together. These collections are dis- Yenching Library places Japanese books tinct from their rare book room collection, published before 1799 in its Treasure Room. which is made up chiefly of printed works The Far Eastern Library at the University with imprint dates before 1660. The map of Chicago defines pre-Meiji, or pre-1868, collection consists of some 2,000 Japanese publications as rare. maps from the seventeenth to nineteenth While there are bibliographic and histori- centuries and printed primarily from cal reasons to support each of these dates, woodblocks or engraved copper plates. the fact remains that most U.S. libraries There are few collections of Japanese maps, have not determined any date for rarity for even in Japan, which can rival the extent Japanese publications. Other criteria are and quality of the one at Berkeley. The East used to demarcate rare or special Japanese Asiatic Library's manuscript collection com- materials. prises approximately 7,000 volumes, the majority of which are pre-twentieth century Scarcity covering a wide range of subjects, including Scarcity of a particular edition is a widely literature and governmental ordinances. recognized criterion for rarity. But there There are as well important literary manu- appears to be no consistent standard scripts of modern Japanese authors, such as enumerating how many (or few) copies of a Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Koda Rohan, and work make it rare. The criterion of "fine Tsubouchi Sh~yo.~ printing" is also vague and is usually related Another collection that is defined by for- to other considerations such as date, histori- mat but not restricted by national origin is cal significance of the work or printing the Spencer Collection of the New York technique, and price. Public Library. This collection began with Japanese Books / 199

Rare Book Room, Univers~tyof llllno~sat Urbana-Champaign

Nara-ehon, or "Nnrcl-picture book," (I type of bound, illustrated inunuscript that flourished from the fifteenth to the secenteenth century. This seventeenth-century work relates the tcile of Kumano no honji.

Rare Bwk Room, University of lllino~sat Urbana-Champaign Wahon, or Japanese-style book utilizing colorful covers and double leclues stitched together with thread and title lube1 pasted on upper left-hand side of cover. This work is an illustrated nouel, Temari uta sannin (1860s), in fifteen oolutnes by ShAei Kinsui. 200 I College G Research Libraries May 1978 an endowment and collection of French il- Museum of Fine Arts has a collection of ap- lustrated books from William Augustus proximately 500 illustrated books related to Spencer in 1912. The income from the en- the development of ukiyoe, the woodblock dowment was "to be spent for the purchase prints of the "Floating World" or contem- of the finest illustrated books and manu- porary scene of the Tokugawa period scripts that can be procured of any country (1600-1867). While these books are kept and in any language and of any peri~d."~with the Japanese print collection, they are The Spencer Collection is now one of the all shelved together in cabinets and are ar- greatest collections of works in pictorial ranged alphabetically by "designer," usually formats in the world. A significant part of a prominent illustrator. Since these books the collection is Japanese. It consists of 300 are not cataloged or under any sort of bib- illustrated manuscripts (chiefly emakimono, liographic control, their bound format is or picture scrolls) and 1,200 illustrated what distinguishes them from other print books from the eighth to the twentieth cen- material. tury, the majority of which are pre-Meiji. The bookish orientation of the collection (by Subject which is meant works with significant text as While some special collections are de- well as bound works) is confirmed by the signed around format, others are delineated fact that loose-leaf Japanese prints in the by subject matter. One of the clearest New York Public Library are held in the examples of this type of coIIection is the Print Division. Japanese materials in the library of the In- Format can also be an important distinc- stitute for Sexual Research at Indiana Uni- tion made in the arrangement of materials versity. These works were collected because in art museums. Art museums do not collect of their sexual content, but the Japanese rare books, or for that matter, books as items at the institute have other special and such. They are acquired for their artistic rare qualities. Most of the works are from value. But one way of locating books in art the Tokugawa period (1600-1867), and the collections is by their format, since bound modern works are manuscripts with hand- works must be shelved as books. painted illustrations. The approximately The Asiatic Department of the Boston forty Japanese works at the Institute for

Rare Book Room, Un~vers~tyof llllno~sat Urbana-Champaign

Enlakimono, or picture scroll. HGrai monogatari (17th cent.?) Japanese Books 1 201

Sexual Research are villow books. brides Collection was originally a gift of the Wash- manuals, and erotic novels. ington journalist, Crosby Stuart Noyes, to the Library of Congress in 1906. It con- Origins of Collections tained a large assortment of works of Another quality by which special collec- Japanese art including watercolors, original tions assume their character is origin. Some drawings and sketchbooks, wood engrav- libraries keep collections received from a ings, lithographs, and 658 illustrated books, single source intact, particularly if they form mainly gafu, or picture albums classified by a harmonious unit. One such collection is type of subject matter, and gacho, un- the Laufer Collection located in the Far bound, folding picture albums. Single sheet Eastern Department's reading room of the prints from the original Noyes' gift were Field Museum in Chicago. This collection transferred to the Print Division, but all was acquired in 1907 in Japan by Berthold books are now kept in the Orientalia Divi- Laufer, the noted East Asian anthropologist sion and are known officially as the Noyes connected with the Field Museum. These Collection. The names of the two other col- 100 works were selected because of their lections are informal designations utilized to usefulness to Japanese anthropological re- define groups of books that were purchased search. They cover the fields of archaeology, for the Library of Congress and remain arts and crafts, geography, Buddhist histori- largely as separate units. cal sights, traditional Japanese dictionaries The Asakawa Collection is the fruit of an and encyclopedias, as well as studies of acquisition trip of the historian, Kanichi Chinese and Japanese languages. The col- Asakawa, commissioned by the Librarian of lection is a conglomerate of rare and less Congress in 1907. While many subject areas unusual works with some imprints from the are covered, the great strength of this col- seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, most lection is Japanese Buddhism, in which field from the nineteenth century. The Laufer it may be the best outside Japan. One un- Collection has not only remained intact- fortunate lapse in judgment by Asakawa was some of it retains its original wrapping. to destroy the original Japanese bindings The Charles R. Boxer Collection at the and to rebind the books in cloth or leather Lilly Library of Indiana University is another in the European fashion. The western-style collection that has retained its original iden- bound Asakawa Collection, which is un- tity, though not by being shelved as a unit. cataloged, is located in a distinct area within There is a separate shelflist for the Boxer the stacks of the Orientalia Division. collection, which, while consisting of works During the tenure of Shio Sakanishi as in many languages related to the expansion head of the Japanese Section of Orientalia of Europe, includes some sixty Japanese from 1930 to 1942, many outstanding pre- items connected with Rangaku, or "Dutch Meiji works were purchased including 300 Studies" in Japan. Rangaku flourished dur- kibyzshi, or popular illlistrated books of the ing the Tokugawa period, since the Dutch late Tokugawa period, several early editions were the only westerners allowed in Japan and studies of Genji monogatari and Man- from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth yzshu, and a number of literary works from century. Maps and travel guides of To- the famed Tokugawa publishing house, kugawa period Nagasaki and Edo, studies Hachimonjiya. A small number of these on medicine, science, and the Dutch lan- works acquired by Sakanishi were cataloged guage, these works provided original source for the Nippon Decimal Collection in material and illustrations for Boxer's seminal Orientalia, but the majority of them remain work on the Dutch influence in Japan, enti- uncataloged and shelved together in a sepa- tled Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600-1850 rate location in the Orientalia stacks. (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1950). Two outstanding collections of Japanese The Orientalia Division of the Library of rare materials were gifts of Japanese alumni Congress has several collections identified to their American alma maters. One of by the original collector. These include the these donations was from the former Noyes Collection, the Asakawa Collection, Japanese students of the Harvard Law and the Sakanishi Collection. The Noyes School. In 1936 on the occasion of the 300th 202 / College (?. Research Lil7mries May 1978 anniversary of the founding of Harvard, an international rare book collection for an Tokyo University was commissioned by entire library complex, as in Yale's Beinecke these Harvard alumni to acquire a collection Rare Book and Manuscript Library where of books dealing with Japanese legal history. the Yale Association of Japan Collection is This collection, which is the most extensive located: and other kinds of swecial interna- in its field outside of Japan, was only re- tional collections, for example, the Spencer cently rediscovered in storage by an enter- Collection of the New York Public Library prising law graduate student, James Kanda. and Indiana's Institute for Sexual Research. Kanda took it upon himself to catalog this The patterns of access to special collec- unusual collection comprising legal codes tions of Japanese materials are basically and personal diaries of judges and legal four, ranging from liberal to conservative. scholars. Of the works, 60 percent are man- Some collections, such as the Harvard- uscripts, and 90 percent are pre-Meiji mate- Yenching Library, permit researchers direct rials, the earliest from the twelfth century. and unaccompanied access to the rare book There are also early editions and drafts of stacks. At the Far Eastern Library of the Meiji codes and the constitution. University of Washington and at Warvard's The other alumni collection is the Yale Fogg Museum, patrons may have direct ac- Associatio~~of Japan Collection, one of the cess only when they are accompanied by a most impressive groupings of Japanese rare member of the library or museum staff. material in the United States. This donation There is no admittance into the stacks of the of books was received by Yale University in Beinecke Library at Yale, so items from the 1935. Professor Katsumi Kuroita of Tokyo Yale Association of Japan Collection are de- University was commissioned by the Yale livered to the researcher, who may use the Association of Japan to collect works to illus- works in private. This is also the case with trate the evolution of Japanese culture as re- the Bartlett Collection at ,Michigan's Asia flected in its manuscripts and printed books. Library. The Yale Association of Japan Collection The most restrictive policy for the use of contains some 350 items covering a wide va- materials was observed at the Far Eastern riety of subjects including geography, art, Department of the New York Metropolitan literature, religion, education, custonls and Museum of Art. Materials are brought to manners, popular culture, useful art, and the patron, who is frequently restricted printing. Some of the works are reproduc- even from handling the piece. The pages of tions, but most are originals, including his- an ukiyoe book of bijin, or portraits of wo- torical documents from the eleventh to the men, were turned for the author of this eighteenth century and an especially fine article by a member of the staff. representation of Buddhist manuscripts dat- ing as far back as the eighth century. In addition, there are many examples of Bibliographic control is fundamental to printed works such as three original the full utilization of a collection. The Hyakumanto darani, an eighth-century means of keeping records of materials held printed paper charm housed in a miniature in rare and special collections vary consider- pagoda; kokatsujibon, or old works in mov- ably. Full library cataloging is perhaps the able type by imperial, monastery, and pri- ideal method of bibliographic control. vate presses; and a collection of 1932-34 The Bartlett Collection at Michigan is facsimiles of rare Chinese, Korean, and cataloged with cards in the public catalog. especially Japanese manuscripts and printed Works of "rare" imprints, that is pre-1660, books. in the East Asiatic Library's Rare Book Room at Berkeley are fully cataloged. Li- STORAGEAND ACCESS brary cards for them are marked "Rare Book There are three basic patterns of storage Room" and are to be found in their author- of Japanese rare materials: a separate area title catalog. Neither their map nor manu- within an East Asian collection, as in the script collections are represented in the Far Eastern libraries of the University of card catalog. In addition to being fully Washington and the University of Chicaga; cataloged, rare book collections at Illinois, Jnpunese Books / 203

Rare Book Room, University of lllinols at Urbana-Champaign

KibyEshi, or "yellow cooei- books," a genre popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This work is SantZ KyZdeit'.~Happyakumanryo kogane no no kalnihan (1791 ).

Rare Book Room, University of llllnols at Urbana-Champaign

HyakumantLi darani, or "One Million Pagodas and Dharani," mnnufnctured clnd printed in 770 by order of Empress Shotoku. The printed prayer or dharani is the oldest authenticclted printed text in the world. 204 / College 6 Research Libraries May 1978

Chicago, and Harvard-Yenching have sepa- library practice usually are utilized as rate shelflists as well. makeshift catalogs until items can be fully cataloged. A primitive card file with basic Book Crrtalogs bibliographic information exists for the Lau- Another means of bibliographic access to fer Collection held in the Far Eastern De- a collection is the printed catalog in book partment of the Field Museum. Only a form, which has the additional possibility of typescript shelflist is available in Berkeley's wide distribution. The Spencer Collection East Asiatic Libraly for its old map collec- does not have a public catalog for its tion, and its manuscript collection is repre- Japanese holdings, hut these works are sented in brief cataloging form in a card file listed chronologically, with descriptions by arranged by title under the radical-stroke the dealer or collectors from,whom the system. work was acquired in the second appendix Very few of the works in the wclhon col- to The New York Public Library's Diction- lection at Columbia's East Asian Library are ary Catalog nnd Shelf List of the Spencer represented in the public catalog. Most are Collection of Illustrated Books and B4nnu- listed in a card file, which one must request ,scripts, published in 1971. &om the librarian. The wnhon card file is Probably the most famous printed catalog arranged alphabetically by title and has no of a U.S. collection of Japanese materials is added entries or cross-references. The in- Kenji Toda's Descriptive Catalogue of adequacy of this means of bibliographical Jrrpcrnese crnd Chinese Illustrated Books in control is compounded by the fact that pa- the Ryerson Librco-y published in 1931. This trons are not allowed to enter and browse in work is a catalog of the Japanese illustrated the closed stacks where the wclhon collec- books held by the Art Institute of Chicago. tion is located. These books were acquired almost entirely from the collections of two early western Practices in Art Bduseu~ns pioneers in the study of Japanese illustrated Art museums have similar kinds of card books-Ernest Fenollosa and Mrs. Louise files recording each museum piece. Norton Brown. Besides listing the more Museum cataloging and arrangement of files than 1,000 works chronologically and fully are, of course, designed for the use of the indexing them, Toda annotated each work art historian, not the bibliographic scholar. and described its historical setting. Toda's Therefore, it may be difficult to locate tex- work is more than a catalog. It is a scholarly tual material. However, it is worth the re- study of the history of printing and illustra- searcher's time to learn some of the princi- tion from lEiOO to 1865 and a general cul- ples of museum card files, since art collec- tural history of the Tokugawa period. Toda's tions are often repositories of written Descriptive Catalogue is now, regrettably, Japanese culture with Japanese books and out of print. manuscripts frequently purchased as art ob- A similar catalog, conceived on the same jects. broad scale but focusing on an earlier period Art museum card files are usually ar- of Japanese history, is Kanichi Asakawa's ranged by periods and subdivided by gknre. Gifts of the Yale Association of Japan. Pre- One might find a medieval illustrated man- oared in 1945. Asakawa's work includes full uscript under the heading "Muromachi- ,annotations for individual items and inform- Painting." Books are somewhat easier to ative essays on the cultural context of the find since "Illustrated Books" is a common collection. Asakawa's catalog is the only bib- genre heading. Under this heading, for liographic record of the Yale Association of example, one finds in the card file of the Japan Collection and is available in a few Far Eastern Art Division of the Metropoli- typewritten copies at Yale in the East Asian tan Museum of Art a sizable selection of il- Collection and in the Bienecke Library. lustrated poetry anthologies from the To- kugawa period. In the Fogg Art Museum at Special Card Files Harvard the files for the regular or perma- Materials in rare and special collections nent collection, the Hofer Collection of the may also be recorded in card files, which in Printed and Graphic Arts of Asia, and selec- Japanese Books 1 205 tions from the Hyde Collection of Japanese tion on exhibit in 1954 at the Clements Li- Books and Manuscripts are all located in the brary of the University of Michigan, the Rubel Library. The Hofer and Hyde Collec- work Japanese Botany During the Period of tions, in particular, contain many lush Wood-Block Printing contains essays on the examples of Buddhist and literary works history of science, and especially botany in from the pre-Tokugawa period. Japan, and on the interrelated development of book publication and illustration during the Tokugawa ,period. Bibliographies of holdings of a particular The Courtly Tradition in Japanese Art collection are another form of bibliographic and Literature is a masterniece of scholar- control. Like the printed catalog, such lists ship and taste, very much in tune with the have the advantage of free circulation and theme of the exhibit on Nihon koten bungei, distribution to interested people. In addi- or the refined, aristocratic tradition of arts tion to being fully cataloged, the Japanese in Japan. Consisting primarily of Buddhist alumni collection in the Harvard Law and literary manuscripts and books of the School is represented in a complete list pre-Tokugawa period, this exhibition catalog prepared by James Kanda. is a basic reference tool for literature, Perhaps the most important bibliography Buddhism, and book and art production re- of Japanese rare books in the United States lated to the courtly tradition of Japan. is now being compiled by Andrew Kuroda of the Orientalia Division of the Library of Congress. All pre-Meiji imprints held in the In conclusion, some recommendations Orientalia Division are being recorded in a based on the findings of this study will be comprehensive list. This undertaking is offered. While scholarly discussion on what monumental since there are more than constitutes rarity in Japanese publications 4,000 books in this category, most of which would be helpful, I do not believe that uni- have never been and never will be versal and standard criteria of rarity should cataloged. Thus works in the Sakanishi and be established. Each library should decide Asakawa collections as well as many others for itself what materials ought to be singled will be systematically recorded and made out for "rare" or special status. Since loca- known to interested scholars for the first tion or pattern of storage of this material is time. closely related to questions of criteria, this matter should also be left to individual li- Exhibition Catnlogs braries. There are other forms of guides to collec- Although each library has unique prob- tions that are not comprehensive listings but lems of security, the rules of access should should not be overlooked. One kind of be liberalized. Direct access to closed stacks selective guide is the exhibition catalog that for researchers should be allowed wherever highlights the contents of a collection. Some possible, especially when a collection is not of these have been expanded into substan- under adequate bibliographic control. tial monographs, which may be used as Effective bibliographic control for general reference works and scholarly Japanese rare and special collections should treatises. be a high priority. Without it, these collec- Two outstanding examples are Japanese tions are virtually useless. If libraries do not Botany During the Period of Wood-Block have the time or lack expertise in this area, Printing,6 concerning the Bartlett Collection it would be desirable for the Committee on at Michigan, and The Courtly Tradition in East Asian Libraries to establish a pool of Japanese Art and Literature (Cambridge: consultants who could undertake such proj- Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, ects. 1973) originally prepared by members of the The publication of printed catalogs, ex- Fogg Museum staff for a traveling exhibition hibition catalogs, and bibliographies should of the Hofer and Hyde Collections. be encouraged so they may be made avail- Besides giving full annotations for and il- able to interested scholars and librarians. In lustrations of works in the Bartlett Collec- this regard, I strongly recommend that 206 / College G Research Libruries May 1978

Kenji Toda's descriptive catalog of the United States in East Asian libraries and in Ryerson collection be brought back into art museums. By raising the level of aware- print and that Kanichi Asakawa's Gifts of ness of this material by the means that have the Yale Association of Japan be revised and been suggested herein, stimulating scholarly published for the first time. projects can be accon~plished and a funda- There are rare and pre-modern Japanese mental service to East Asian librarianship books and manuscripts throughout the and Japanese studies can be rendered.

1. Reports of Tsuen-hsuin Tsien's surveys of rare Japanese works and manuscripts antedating and special collections of East Asian materials the beginning of the Keichir period, or 1596. may be found in G. Raymond Nunn and See Chozaburo Uemura, Toshokangaku Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, "Far Eastern Resources in shoshigaku jiten (Tokyo: Yurindo, 1967), American Libraries," Library Quarterly p.112-13. 29:32-37 (Jan. 1959) and "Rarities and Spe- 3. Information concerning the East Asiatic Li- cialties of East Asian Materials in American brary was obtained for this article primarily Libraries" in Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, Current from an unpublished paper given at the Status of East Asian Collections in American Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Associa- Libraries: A Report for 1974175 (Washington, tion for Asian Studies, Toronto, Canada, D.C.: Center for Chinese Research Materials, March 19-21, 1976: Eiji Yutani, "Japanese Association of Research Libraries, 1976), Rare Books and Special Collections in the East p.3W7. Tsien's "Rarities and Specialties . . ." Asiatic Library, University of California, also appears in Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien, "Current Berkeley: A Preliminary Survey." Status of East Asian Collections in American 4. The New York Public Library's Dictionary Libraries," Journal of Asian Studies 36:50%14 Catalog and Shelf List of the Spencer Collec- (May 1977). tion of Illustrated Books and Manuscripts 2. Some of the cutoff dates for rarity in Japanese (Boston: 6. H. Hall, 1971), 1:iii. libraries are: in Kyoto University Library, 5. Ibid., 2:91731, 943-61. Japanese printed works before the beginning 6. Harley Harris Bartlett and Hide Shohara, of the Genwa period, or 1615, and manu- "Japanese Botany During the Period of scripts before the Keicho period, or 1596; in Wood-Block Printing" in The Asa Gray Bulle- the National Diet Library both printed tin, n.s. 3, nos.34 (Spring 1961).