Kyoto University Library Network

The Graduate School of Letters of Kyoto University and the Kyoto University Museum have been carrying out the restoration and digitization of an important cultural property Dainihonshi hensan kiroku held by the Graduate School of Letters since academic year 2017. Three hundred twenty-two images of the restored volumes 15-20 are now available in Kyoto University Rare Materials Digital Archive.

▼Important Cultural Property - Dainihonshi hensan kiroku (G.S. Letters)
 

Dainihonshi hensan kiroku (大日本史編纂記録) is a collection of more than 6,000 letters (copies) exchanged between Shokokan (彰考館; Mito Domain’s office for history compilation) in Mito (currently in Ibaraki Prefecture) and Edo (currently Tokyo) and their Kyoto office regarding the compilation of Dainihonshi (*1) by Tokugawa Mitsukuni (徳川光圀; 1628-1701). A total of 42,810 people and organizations and 15,159 historical records and literature works are mentioned in the letters and the content covers a wide range of aspects of the time, such as history, literature, Confucianism and Japanese classical literature, as well as the publishing culture during the Genroku Period, which makes this rare material a first-class historical record.

The rare material, before being restored, consisted of 248 volumes of about 10,000 sheets (one sheet folded in half to form a pouch makes two pages) in the form of fukuro-toji yotsume-toji (袋綴四つ目綴装) with sheets of papers folded at the fore edge and sewn at the back edge at four points. However, the rebinding and restoration done to the material during the Edo period were not appropriate to secure its long-term preservation; they also made it impossible to read the majority of the volumes without damaging them, because the text near the back edge was sewn inside the spine. Therefore, a restoration project was launched in academic year 2017 funded by the Sumitomo Foundation, and also funded by government from 2021. The Graduate School of Letters has also set up Kyoto University Fund for the restoration of its library collection and the Kyoto University Museum acquired the university's special budget for this project in 2018.

Each volume of Dainihonshi hensan kiroku is to be released on the Internet through Kyoto University Rare Materials Digital Archive upon the completion of restoration and digitization processes. As of May 17, 2022, the Digital Archive provides 1,872,545 images of 23,250 titles.

The Kyoto University Library Network has been working to alert and educate KU researchers about the issue of “predatory journals”. And we have published a new leaflet about this issue.

This leaflet contains the latest information on the increasingly complex methods in which predatory journals operate.
Please take a look at it.

"Beware of Predatory Journals"(Kyoto University Library Network, March. 2022.)
　　　

For more information, please visit the following URL:
https://www.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/content0/1387404?lang=en

2022.05.16 User Support Division, Main Library

The Maintenance work was completed (2022/05/17 11:50) and the service has been restored.

Kyoto University Rare Materials Digital Archive will suspend its service due to system maintenance for about 2 hours from 10:30am, May 17, 2022.
The service will be restored as soon as the maintenance work has been completed. 
Thank you for your understanding.

Due to system maintenance, the following services will be temporarily unavailable.
We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

Period：from 8 to 10 am. on May 13, 2022 (JST)
Services to be affected: Project Euclid site https://projecteuclid.org

[Main Library Academic Support Section]

Maruzen eBook Library download service has resumed.
Please read the following User's Guide and Notes before using the Maruzen eBook Library.
*Violation of the terms of use may result in restrictions on the use of the entire Kyoto University.

■User's Guide & Notes■

　The following actions are prohibited.　

• Downloading more than the maximum number of pages displayed on the "Print/Save" screen.
• Downloading more than the maximum number of pages in a single title by multiple persons jointly.
• Using downloaded files for purposes other than the downloader's own research or study.
• Sharing downloaded files within a laboratory, company, seminar, group, etc., or transferring, distributing, or redistributing them to a third party.
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　For more information: https://elib.maruzen.co.jp/app/eguide/mel_manual.pdf (Japanese)

For background information, please refer to the following news.
[Trouble] Maruzen eBook Library download services temporarily unavailable (4/5-4/27)

Posted: May 2, 2022
Updates: May 20, 2022