Reserch and Cataloguing of Old Japanese Books

通过从1997年8月下旬至9月初的第一次调查，到2000年8月下旬至9月初的第五次调查，我们记录了美国国会图书馆收藏的明治前日本材料的内容和状况。20世纪80年代，在前美国国会图书馆馆长本田先生的指导下，我们向公众发布了关于日本文学和文化的资料目录，以及与日本算术有关的资料。这些书目列出了630个文献条目和450个算术条目，但我们的调查涵盖了本田书目之外的未涉及这一点的材料。该项目团队的调查基于手写数据和直接输入计算机的数据。这些材料包括文学(散文和诗歌古典文学)，与政治、法律、经济、教育、医学、农业和商业有关的作品，与艺术、戏剧和休闲艺术有关的材料，与参考著作、藏书、神道、佛教和语言学有关的材料，以及善本和古籍。这项调查共收集了3200项1868年前本田书目中未包括的项目的数据。由于本田书目中的项目已被转移到杰斐逊大楼和约翰·亚当斯大楼以外的其他地方，因此我们没有将它们包括在本次调查中。最终，我们计划完成印刷的一般参考书目和所有英文和日本材料的在线数据库。这项调查名义上包括1868年之前创作和印刷的日本材料，但也包括同时印刷的中国经典材料。此外，它还包括其他可能不被认为是书籍的东西，如认为有必要的一页小册子。

Through a series of surveys, from the first from late August to early September of 1997, to the fifth from late August to early September of 2000, we have recorded the contents and condition of pre-Meiji Japanese materials in the American Library of Congress. In the l980s under the direction of former American Library of Congress librarian Mr. Honda, bibliographies of materials on Japanese literature and culture, and of materials related to Japanese arithmetic, we released to the public. These bibliographies listed 630 items on literature and 450 items on arithmetic, but our surveys covered materials not addressed to this point that fall outside of Honda's bibliographies.This project team based its survey both on handwritten data and that directly entered into a computer. The materials covered literature (prose and poetry classical literature), works relating to politics, law, economics, education, medicine, agriculture, and commerce, materials pertaining to arts, theater, and leisure arts, and materials related to reference works, book collections, Shinto, Buddhism, and linguistics, and rare books and old documents. This survey resulted in a collection of data on a total of 3200 items not included in Honda's biblography from before 1868.As the items in the Honda bibliography had been moved somewhere other than the Jefferson Building and the John Adams Building, we did not include them in this survey. Eventually, we are planning to complete a printed general bibliography and an online database of all English and Japanese materials.While this survey nominatively covers Japanese materials created and printed before 1868, it also includes Chinese classic materials printed in same time. Also, it includes things that might not otherwise be considered books such as one-page pamphlets as deemed necessary.