History | Japanese Collections

Category: History (page 1 of 2)

Harvesting History: The Meg Milk Shashi and Their Agricultural Roots

December 18, 2025 / davis.5257@osu.edu / Comments Off

Guest Post by Brendon Baughn

The Ohio State University recently expanded its collection of shashi (社史, company histories) with the 2023 acquisition of three volumes from Meg Milk Snow Brand, Japan’s leading dairy producer. This addition brings the total number of Meg Milk–related shashi held by the University Libraries to seven and further strengthens OSU’s growing collection of materials related to agriculture, food production, and corporate development. The most recent volumes were donated during a campus visit by Meg Milk Snow Brand representatives, which included a tour of OSU’s main campus library, where the shashi are housed.

Images in the slider above show representatives from Meg Milk Snow Brand presenting the most recent volumes of their company’s history to The Ohio State University Libraries during a campus visit.

Entitled Yukijirushi Nyūgyō shi, the seven-volume Corporate History of Meg Milk Snow Brand chronicles the evolution of Japan’s modern dairy industry. Beyond tracing the company’s institutional history, these volumes document broader developments in milk processing technologies, as well as the establishment of legal and quality standards that shaped dairy production and consumption across Japan through the oil crisis of 1974.

Diaries and Documents of Premodern Japan: Shiryō Sanshū

October 1, 2025 / Jayden Mitchell / Comments Off

Homepage of the JapanKnowledge collection of the Shiryo Sanshu.

As part of our ongoing effort to strengthen access to premodern Japanese historical sources, we announced earlier this fall the addition of the complete digital transcription of Heian Ibun (平安遺文). Building on that momentum, we are pleased to now offer access to the first unit of Shiryō Sanshū, newly available through the JapanKnowledge platform.

This initial release includes documents and diaries dating from the Heian, Kamakura, and Nanboku-chō periods, offering valuable insight into Japan’s premodern past. The collection features writings by prominent historical figures, including Prince Shigeakira (4th son of Emperor Daigo, 重明親王), Emperor Hanazono (花園天皇), Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家), and Nakahara Momori (中原師守), among others. These diaries and journals allow researchers to explore the daily lives, thoughts, and concerns of court nobles and members of the imperial family.

The Shiryō Sanshū is a highly respected compilation of ancient diaries and documents, published by Yagi Shoten (八木書店), a Tokyo-based publishing house, between 1968 and 2020. The series encompasses more than 260 documents spanning from the Heian period through the Edo period. Each volume has been meticulously digitized, presenting both the original script and modern Japanese transcriptions. This dual-format approach enables full-text searching using both historical and modern character forms.

Expanding Premodern Japanese Sources: Heian Ibun Now Available

August 29, 2025 / Jayden Mitchell / Comments Off

A website featuring a variety of Japanese texts, listed in chronological order.

Front page of the Heian Ibun collection, which is included in the “Ibun Series” (遺文シリーズ) archive on JKBooks.

We are pleased to announce another significant addition to our growing collection of accessible archives and databases: the complete digital transcription of Heian Ibun (平安遺文), one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Heian-period (794–1185) historical documents in the world. This digitization greatly expands research possibilities by providing full-text, searchable transcriptions of all included materials.

Heian Ibun was compiled by historian Dr. Rizō Takeuchi (竹内理三博士), who began assembling the collection in 1947. Over the course of approximately twenty years, he brought together more than 5,500 documents, publishing them across 11 volumes arranged largely in chronological order and spanning the entirety of the Heian period. In 1974, Dr. Takeuchi returned to the project to revise and reorganize the volumes into a new format.

These revised editions were later digitized and further updated by historians at the University of Tokyo, who have continued to make corrections and enhancements since 1996. The most up-to-date versions of these texts are now available digitally through the JKBooks platform on JapanKnowledge.

Kabuki’s Modern History, as Told by Postcards

July 5, 2025 / Jayden Mitchell / Comments Off

Today I would like to highlight one of our library collections that was featured in our recent atrium exhibit: an impressive set of 20th-century kabuki actor postcards. Featuring photographs of kabuki actors and plays—both onstage and behind the scenes—this collection contains over 2,500 postcards and is the largest we are aware of outside Japan. The contents date from the early Taishō period (1912–1926) to the 1980s and are in excellent condition overall, although some earlier cards show minor signs of wear or fading.

Portrait postcards like these became increasingly popular in Japan at the turn of the 20th century, when advancements in photography allowed printed cards to be produced at ever-faster rates. This meant that mass-produced images became prime collectibles for fans who visited kabuki theaters and other cultural sites. Soon, they surpassed the popularity of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, which had dominated the 19th century as one of the most sought-after Japanese collectibles of the era.

Mapping the Allied Air War – AAF Target Chart of Tokyo

April 24, 2023 / davis.5257@osu.edu / Comments Off

Guest Post by Takuma Goto

In a previous blog, I discussed our University Libraries’ ongoing Japanese maps project. Today, I’d like to share another interesting map I’ve encountered: a World War II U.S. Army Air Forces’ (AAF) “target chart” of Tokyo, Japan.

Historical Background

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, the United States quickly mobilized for the Pacific War. The following April, the AAF’s aerial campaigns against Imperial Japan began with the Doolittle Raid on the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. This small-scale air raid would become the first of hundreds of Allied bombings throughout World War II until Japan’s surrender in August 1945.

AAF Target Chart Japan. Washington, D.C.: Army Map Service, 1942.

Announcing the Thomas Gregory Song Research Fellowship, Spring 2023

November 11, 2022 / davis.5257@osu.edu / Comments Off

Thomas Gregory Song ca. 1940 in school uniform in Japan-occupied Dairen
(present-day Dalian, China). Image courtesy of Rare Books & Manuscripts Library

The Ohio State University Libraries is pleased to announce the Thomas Gregory Song Research Fellowship for an independent research project that makes substantial on-site use of the Thomas Gregory Song (TGS) Papers in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (https://library.osu.edu/collections/ SPEC.RARE.0195/collection-inventory). Written predominantly in Japanese and English (with some documents in Korean), the TGS Papers include Song family genealogical records; personal photographs from Song’s childhood; an Oral History Interview; over 2300 blog posts; and personal correspondence, journals, and essays. The TGS Papers shed significant light on topics of World History, East Asian Studies, Asian American Studies, Asian diaspora, migration, and gender and sexuality studies. For more detailed information on the Song Family history and related collections held at the University Libraries, please visit the recently launched Thomas Gregory Song Family Exhibit.

Applications are due by on Dec. 15, 2022 at 5:00pm.

A Short Tour of JKBooks, an eBook platform from JapanKnowledge

March 5, 2021 / Nicholas Castle / Comments Off

A glimpse of titles available on the JKBooks “Book Shelf” (Hondana) search page

You may have caught our earlier posts outlining some of OSU Libraries’ useful Japanese Studies online databases and archives. In the past, we’ve covered the Maruzen e-Book library and the KinoDen digital library, and described some specific collections including The Oriental Economist Archives and Manchuria Daily News Online.

Here I would like to highlight specifically JapanKnowledge Books, or “JKBooks,” a valuable database with access to a range of corpora dating from antiquity to the present. Presently, our libraries offers access to 11 titles (of the total 13 that are available for sale) to users with OSU credentials. This list is expanding all the time, and just this year, in fact, we have acquired three new titles. (To preview these titles, please use the link here to jump down to our list below.)

As the name suggests, JKBooks is connected to the JapanKnowledge database. However, in contrast to JapanKnowledge, which contains a lengthy list of reference books — specialized dictionaries, encyclopedia, and yearbooks, for example — JKBooks offers specialized corpora of primary sources.

Three of my favorite JKBook titles are Taiyo (The Sun), a 19^th-20^th century magazine; the Gunsho Ruiju series, a compilation of manuscripts dated from ancient times to the early modern era; and the ORIENTAL ECONOMIST archives, a monthly English language magazine elucidating economic topics in industrialized, Imperial Japan. This is only a small sampling of the interesting and valuable JK Books collections you can access online!

Incidentally, while JapanKnowledge is a Japanese platform, with Japanese-language materials, English users can easily switch the interface language by clicking the “Eng” button found in the top right of every page (see image):

On the top purple ribbon, you will see a menu leading to three different search pages to help you find the content you need in the database: Basic Search (基本検査), Advanced Search ( 詳細（個別）検査), and Book Shelf (本棚).

Basic Search allows searches on particular words or phrases contained in any of the archived materials. Advanced Search lets you narrow your options a bit, letting you drill down within one or more particular collection(s). And finally, Book Shelf features a user-friendly interface that lays out each particular collection by volume, issue, and/or date of publishing. This may be your best choice if you are interested in a specific series in the database or simply want to browse the publications from cover to cover. The image below shows the “Book Shelf” search options available upon clicking the title The Oriental Economist, in JKBooks’ English-language interface.

JK Books is an especially powerful resource for those who need primary sources in the vernacular and for those who are forced to work remotely. There is no shortage of unique perspectives and in-context information hiding in this treasure trove of
materials!

Current JKBooks at OSU

Taiyo [Nihon Kindai Bungakukan]
Bungei Kurabu: Meiji-hen [Nihon Kindai Bungakukan]
Kindai sakka genkokushu [Nihon Kindai Bugakukan]*
Fuzoku Gaho
Gunsho Ruiju series
Bijutsu Shinpo*
Toyo Keizai Shimpo / Weekly Toyo Keizai Digital Archives
Jinbutsu Sosho
The ORIENTAL ECONOMIST Digital Archives
Kamakura Ibun
Bungeishunju Archives*

Note: Titles with asterisks (*) denote new databases acquired in academic year 2020-21.

If you have any questions regarding this resource, or any other resource offered for Japanese Studies at the OSU Libraries, please contact Dr. Ann Marie Davis, Japanese Studies Librarian at the Ohio State University: davis.5257@osu.edu.

Maruzen eBook Library (MeL) Now on Trial at OSU Libraries

April 2, 2020 / davis.5257@osu.edu / Comments Off

Update (posted September 1, 2020): Following the trial period described in this blog, OSU Libraries made the decision to permanently adopt the Maruzen eBook Library (MeL) platform, which can be accessed now at: https://library.ohio-state.edu/record=e1002576~S7. Continue reading for details on how to use this helpful new e-resource!

In an effort to increase the list of e-resources for research and teaching in Japanese Studies, we have set up an Extended Trial Reading Agreement for the Maruzen eBook Library (MeL), which will last until the end of May. During this trial period, OSU users will be able to access over 56,000 Japanese ebook titles.

Also during this trial period, unlimited concurrent user access is possible, but printing and downloading are not. If you have specific printing and downloading needs – or any questions whatsoever about Japanese language e-resources – please contact me, Ann Marie Davis, the Japanese Studies Librarian at OSU, at davis.5257@osu.edu.

To get started using this online platform, click the link in the OSU catalog here:

https://library.ohio-state.edu/record=e1002576~S7

For tips on how to search for books in MeL and use the various platform functions, please refer to the Maruzen eBook Library cheatsheet.

If you see something you’d like to consider purchasing, please feel free to e-mail me. If you need MeL materials for your teaching or research projects, you can also fill out this form for eBook purchases, which goes straight to our OSU Library acquisitions office:

http://go.osu.edu/resourcerequest2020

Temperance in Tokyo – Unique Woodblock Prints from the Early Japanese Women’s Rights Movement

January 21, 2020 / Nicholas Castle / Comments Off / Sticky

Following the Meiji Restoration (1868) and the new policies of modernization (kindaika) and Westernization (seiyōka), Japan began to import much more than material goods from the Western imperial powers. New concepts and ideologies soon made their way across the Pacific and freely entered the once “closed country.” Riding this wave were Christian values and models of Western feminism, which in part were proselytized by the American teacher and temperance crusader Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt (1830-1912).

Title: “Inshu no Nariyuki.” Meiji Woodblock Print Leaves, Illustrated by Sasaki Toyoju.
Collection number SPEC.RARE.MMS.0127.
Counterclockwise: Angled view of the six prints, detail of a jovial tavern scene, drunken disorderly conduct from the main character confronting a Native American man, drunken disheveled main character robbing a man by the roadside

Inspired by Christian sermons about the destructive nature of alcohol, Leavitt helped found the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in New York and Ohio in 1873. Soon thereafter, her global crusade led her as far as Japan and other countries including New Zealand, Burma, India, and Turkey, where female allies launched new chapters of the World WCTU. Tired of the ill effects of alcohol on their domestic lives, women worldwide were drawn to the message of temperance and created an unprecedented transnational movement “for God, home and country.”

Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: Kyōsai’s Hyakki Gadan Now at OSU Libraries

October 23, 2019 / Nicholas Castle / Comments Off

Japanese Studies invites you to learn about the mythology and artistic culture of Meiji Japan (1868-1912) through the newly acquired Kyōsai Hyakki Gadan (暁斎百鬼画談), a color woodblock print by eccentric painter and manga forerunner, Kawanabe Kyōsai (河鍋暁斎, 1831-1889). The long, accordion book (orihon) depicts a parade of all manner of weird and wicked yōkai (妖怪), spirits and demons from Japanese mythology. This particular scene is evocative of the hyakki yagyō (百鬼夜行) idiom, a historic theme in Japanese visual representation wherein a procession of legendary creatures sets foot upon the communities of mortal men and women.

For more information about this new acquisition, please check out the full article on our Manga Blog at OSU Libraries, available here: https://library.osu.edu/site/manga/2019/10/02/night-parade-of-one-hundred-demons-kyosais-hyakki-gadan-now-at-osu-libraries/

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Japanese Collections

Category: History (page 1 of 2)

Harvesting History: The Meg Milk Shashi and Their Agricultural Roots

Guest Post by Brendon Baughn

Diaries and Documents of Premodern Japan: Shiryō Sanshū

Expanding Premodern Japanese Sources: Heian Ibun Now Available

Kabuki’s Modern History, as Told by Postcards

Mapping the Allied Air War – AAF Target Chart of Tokyo

Guest Post by Takuma Goto

Historical Background

Announcing the Thomas Gregory Song Research Fellowship, Spring 2023

A Short Tour of JKBooks, an eBook platform from JapanKnowledge

Current JKBooks at OSU

Maruzen eBook Library (MeL) Now on Trial at OSU Libraries

Temperance in Tokyo – Unique Woodblock Prints from the Early Japanese Women’s Rights Movement

Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: Kyōsai’s Hyakki Gadan Now at OSU Libraries

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