>> From the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C. [ Silence ] >> Good afternoon. Thank you for joining the Symposium. The Japanese Collection at the Library of Congress: Past, Present, and Future. Coordinated by the Japan Team as well as the Asian Division. My name is Mari Nakahara. Most of them I have communicated by email, and I am a Asian Division reference librarian for Japanese collection, as well as I'm a coordinator for this program. I am honored to welcome everybody here today. This symposium was created in conjunction with the exhibition to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Library's systematic approach to building the premier research and its thorough [inaudible] resource on Japan in the United States. The exhibition also highlights the evolution of Japanese collections, resulting in new media, new tools and new demands from its users. I am excited to have four speakers and two panelists today who are familiar with the Japanese collections and are enthusiastic to consider the future development of the collections. The Japan team has spent more than a year to mount the exhibition and prepare these related events. The exhibition has just opened and will only be on view until October 16th. Please stop by after the event to the Asian Division Reading Room, if you haven't, and grab the brochure. I will show you how it looks like. Oh, IT is now working [inaudible]. This is the exhibition brochure. I intentionally did not include this one in the package [laughter] so that I can pull you to the Asian Division. But if you look at this brochure, this is by Ando Hiroshiga [phonetic]. You will see the shape of the Mount Fuji. Many people have asked me, "Why you don't show the top?" No, there is no top of the Mount Fuji. From the original. "Why?" He is implying the future. [Laughter] So, anyway, please stop by the exhibition, grab this one. Please read and walk through the exhibition. Other than that, probably you will not get any sense of what we meant in the exhibition. You may see the beautiful object, but you may not get the story. If you wish to attend, we will have two exhibition walkthroughs by curators, one of which is Saturday, October 2nd, one to two. The other one is October 16th, as well as Saturday, one to two. So Eiichi Ito covers on the October 2nd, and I will cover the October 16th. Now, I will give the podium to Peter Young, the chief of the Asian Division. Peter provided support in many ways for the Japan Team, to get through all the difficulty, make these events happen. He will talk more about the meaning of the exhibition and the related events. Peter. [ Applause ] >> Thank you very much, Mari. Good afternoon and welcome here to the Library of Congress. As Mari indicated, I'm Peter Young and I have the honor of being Chief of the Asian Division, and it is my pleasure this afternoon to welcome all of you to this event. Also, I want to give special welcome and thanks to today's guest speakers. Dr. Kakugyo Chiku and Dr. Manabu Yokoyama from Japan, and Miss Ellen Hammond from Yale University. I also want to express my special appreciation to Ambassador Fujisaki, who has generously offered to provide some opening remarks, despite his hectic schedule, this afternoon. As Mari indicated, the entire Japan Team has been working to plan this symposium, really, and the exhibit in the Asian Division Reading Room, for more than a year. Their energy, their enthusiasm, and their expertise are truly wonderful, and inspiring. The spirit of their work reflects... this activity, and the reason that the last 80 years here have been successful in building these magnificent collections of Japanese material. The Library began collecting Japanese language publications in 1875, when the United States and the Japanese governments agreed to exchange official documents. The collections continued to grow when, in 1905, Crosby Stuart Noyes, journalist and editor of the Washington Evening Star, donated his private collection of 658 illustrated books to the Library. These included works produced from the mid-18th century to the late-19th century, as well as watercolors, drawings, wood block prints, and lithographs. In 1907, Dr. Kan'ichi Asakawa, of Yale University, was commissioned by the Library to purchase 9,000 volumes, more than 3,000 titles, of books focusing on Japanese history, literature, Buddhism, geography, Shinto, music, and the arts. The collections began to grow systematically after Dr. Shiho Sakanishi arrived at the Library in 1930 as the Chief Assistant to the Japanese Section. It's particularly meaningful, to me, to mark this particular point in history, the growth of these collections, because my father worked here in the early 1930's, here at the Library of Congress, but in something called the Orientalia Division. So I have a family, shall we say, relationship, with the origins of these collections. As the first Japanese employee at the Library, Dr. Sakanishi began building a premier research and scholarly resource, tripling the size of the collections during her twelve year service at the Library. After the end of World War Two, the Library's Japanese language collections grew rapidly with the addition of materials requisitioned in Japan by the United States Armed Forces. Over the last six decades, the collections have grown consistently as a result of the Asian Division staff efforts to research new publications, to listen and respond to patrons' needs, to revise collection development policies, and recommend specific resources. Currently, the Japanese collections contain more than 1.17 million items. The Library as a result has the most extensive collection of Japanese language materials in the world outside, of course, Japan. In addition to acquiring materials, the Library's Asian Division staff continues with initiatives to make Japanese collections available for long-term access. One method for accomplishing this goal is by re-formatting technologies. Microfilming and digitization allow access to these Japanese materials to a wider audience. The rapid advancement of web-based services and the increase in digital content present both opportunities and challenges for the Library. These issues form the basis for our symposium today, looking at the past, the present, and most interestingly, the future. The use of social media to introduce and make collections available, subscriptions for e-resources that provide patrons easy access to reference materials, and the acquisition and preservation of born-digital materials, are just some of the many opportunities under development. The Library has been moving forward with efforts to digitize and disseminate information broadly to offer increased opportunities for global access, and to enhance patron interaction consistent with the Library's mission. Recently in this regard, last July, the National Diet [phonetic] Library in Japan, and the Library of Congress, signed a memorandum of understanding agreement, to digitize more than 11,000 titles of pre-World War Two censorship and serial collections and materials of the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy contained in the Library of Congress collections. These are unique resources, copies of which do not exist in Japan, and the Japan Team is anticipating a new stage in the development and dissemination of the collections through this project. Now before I conclude, I need to express our appreciation and thanks to the sponsors of this symposium, All-Nippon Airways, the Embassy of Japan, Hitachi Limited, and the Japan Commerce Association of Washington, D.C., as well as Matsui and Company, USA, Incorporated. Join me in thanking our sponsors by giving them a round of applause. [ Applause ] Now it is my distinct honor to introduce Dr. Carolyn Brown, who directs the Library's Office of Scholarly Programs, and directs the Kluge Center here at the Library. She is a longtime friend and supporter of the Asian Division, and she will provide a few remarks prepared for Dr. Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, who unfortunately regrets that she cannot be with us this afternoon. Carolyn. [ Applause ] >> Yes, Dr. Deanna Marcum sends you warm greetings along with her strong regrets at missing this wonderful occasion, so it's my honor, actually, to read the remarks that she had prepared for this time. I'm delighted to welcome all of you to the Library of Congress for today's symposium. It is not often that I have the chance to combine my official responsibilities with my personal interests. But this afternoon's program does just that. At the Library, I am responsible for providing leadership and direction for the collections and services of this marvelous institution. But over the last several decades my interest in Japan has grown. Today's symposium provides an opportunity to combine aspects of my professional responsibilities with my interest in Japan. My first visit to Japan was more than two decades ago. I have returned there numerous times since then to participate in the Kanazawa Institute of Technology's International Roundtable for Library and Information Science. The Institutes are planned every year with support from the Council on Library and Information Resources. Over the course of many visits, I have developed a deep appreciation and respect for Japan, for Japanese culture, Japanese libraries and for our Japanese librarian colleagues. And today I am especially delighted to have a chance to join with Dr. Kakugyo Chiku, my wonderful colleague and friend from Kanazawa, and our other program speakers. Today's symposium, along with the related Asian Division exhibition, provides an occasion to reflect on the past, the present and the future. In essence, our program speakers will offer comments on the historical development, the current condition, and the future vision for the Japanese collections of the Library of Congress. Before offering further remarks in the symposium, I want to underscore the critical importance of the Library's comprehensive global collection. This Library's collections constitute more than 145 million items. Together, they constitute the single largest and most comprehensive collection of library material in the world. The library acquires vast quantities of material from copyright deposit. More than 12,500 materials are received each day from American authors and publishers. Virtually all formats are included, books, maps, movies, sound recordings, as well as manuscript collections containing wholly unique items of significant historical importance. In addition, the Library's digital acquisitions are increasing rapidly. But notably, the library's collections contain historically important materials acquired from other nations and cultures around the world. These international works, in over 470 different languages, constitutes the world's largest and most wide-ranging collection of human knowledge and creativity in history. The Library sustains these universal collections for the benefit of current and future generations of lawmakers and their constituents. The Japanese collection is a vital component of the Library's comprehensive and global collections. The Japanese vernacular language resources, now totaling more than 1.5 million items, range from ancient, rare printed materials, to contemporary digital resources. Japan's first diplomatic mission came to America in 1860. In fact, just last May, the Library was honored to join the Japanese Embassy in hosting a commemorative lecture marking the 150th anniversary of this first Japanese diplomatic mission to the United States. Following the 1860 visit, the Library began acquiring Japanese language material under an 1875 agreement between Japan and the U.S. Congress to exchange government publications. This exchange relationship proved to be instrumental in developing the Library's Japanese collections. By visiting America 150 years ago, the Japanese delegation of 77 samurai laid the foundation for the rich relationships that our two nations share today. Everywhere the group traveled, large crowds turned out to see the samurai, fascinated by their traditional clothing, top-knot hairstyle, and prominent samurai swords. Today however, visitors from Japan attract much less attention. They routinely come to America on business, or as tourists, and they come for education and to conduct research. The world has changed significantly over the last century and a half. However, today, the need for cross-cultural understanding between America and Japan is greater now than ever before. The scope of the Library's diverse international collections is of increasing importance. The challenges of the next century require that researchers and scholars have access to global resources. The Library's comprehensive global collections provide opportunities to foster understanding about other nations in an increasingly complex world. Without access to these global collections, including the wonderful Japanese resources that are the subject of today's symposium, the perspective, scope and knowledge required by today's complex issues would not be available. The purpose of today's symposium is to increase knowledge about the Library's unique Japanese collections to the broader research, scholarly, and academic communities. In addition, the event commemorates the establishment of the Library's Japanese collection 80 years ago. Over the last eight decades, staff members from the Library's Asian Division and before 1978 the Orientalia Division, working closely with colleagues in the U.S. research library community, developed consistent standards for treatment, description, and systematic organization of Japanese materials. Today's symposium and retrospective exhibition, have been planned for this 80th anniversary to celebrate these accomplishments while projecting strategic directions for the future. The historic development of the Library's Japanese collections serves as a strong foundation for the future. In assembling the most extensive collection of Japanese language materials in the world outside of Japan, the Library's Japanese staff members have drawn on their extensive knowledge of Japanese culture, history, and society. The collections reflect this expertise and extensive knowledge. However, the continued growth and development of our Japanese collections into the future requires new knowledge and expertise. Today the Library is challenged to incorporate digital works, techniques and processes into our routines, workflow structures and procedures. The challenges presented by digital media require a rethinking of traditional structures and assumptions. Recently, the Library has gained significant digital re-formatting experience to increase collection access. In this regard, the Library has recently signed a cooperative agreement with the National Diet Library to digitize documentary records from 11,000 items transferred from Japan to the Library following the Second World War. Many of these unique items are not available anywhere else in the world. It is our mutual expectation that these collections will prove to be of great interest to researchers. The Library's future plans include the further applications of digital techniques to, and the acquisition of digital content for, the Japanese collections. But perhaps I am getting ahead of the story. Our speakers will, I am sure, provide you with a great deal more information and detail about what we need to be doing to meet the challenges of the digital future to assure the continued growth and development of the Library's outstanding collection of Japanese materials. I thank you for coming today and I can assure that we are in for a wonderful, enlightening and stimulating symposium. Now I would like to introduce Ambassador Fujisaki. Since his arrival in the summer of 2008, Ambassador Fujisaki has been a true friend of the Asian Division, having already presented a lecture, "Lessons Learned, Good and Bad" in December 2008, and attended some events organized by the Asian Division. We are very pleased that the ambassador could join us here this afternoon. Ambassador Fujisaki. [ Applause ] >> Thank you very much. A great honor to be here. Congratulations Peter, Mari-san, and all others who worked for this exhibition and symposium. 50 years ago, two old ladies were sitting and chatting on the porch The older, bigger lady was the visitor and clad in kimono, and the smaller woman was clad in, wearing Western clothing. The older, the bigger woman was accompanied by her grandson, teenage boy, junior high school boy, and he was not listening to this conversation at all, thinking when he can get home. [Laughter] The smaller lady was, she was Sakanishi. And as you can guess, this kid was myself. So I missed a great chance of listening to this small giant. As you say, "Pearls before swine" or something. [Laughter] This is because my grandmother, two years older than Sakanishi Shiho, knew her in United States. And when all the Japanese had to evacuate from United States, Sakanishi Shiho came back, Dr. Sakanishi came back to Tokyo and she didn't have home so my grandmother who had a home, house and the rooms were empty because her son had to go to war, offered her to stay with her. And she stayed several months with my grandmother. By the way, uncle didn't come back. And they kept their friendship, and that visit took place. And I was fortunate enough, at least I can say that, like Peter-san, that I was there [laughter], that I had some connection with that. I think Dr. Sakanishi was such a brilliant lady, and she did lot for this Library, Library of Congress. I learned that while she was here 12 years, she tripled her collection of this Library of Congress. Don't ask me from what number to what number [laughter], but she did that. Isn't it so, Mari-san? So, but, I think she has all the respect, but also who is to be respected, is those in the Library who hired her with such a foresight. And I think the respect should go to the Library here, as well. As you may heard, this Library has the biggest collection of Japanese books and documents outside of Japan, with a million and hundred and seventy thousand books. That's really great, and my only regret is, when I hope that a lot of people have a chance to visit this exhibition and listen to this symposium, only two regrets. I'm sorry I have to go after my remarks because from tomorrow my prime minister and foreign minister is here in United States and New York and I have to attend their meetings, so I have to be preparing for that. The other regret is that my office is a little far away from this building so that I haven't been on the list of frequent visitors. If so, I would be a lot smarter. Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >> Well, thank you very much, Ambassador Fujisaki. Well, I had never known that story, of course not. And I kind of find the link because as you may know, we own [inaudible] of Sakanishi Shiho is about a manuscript of the 15 boxes. And immediately I quick one think. 1941, Sakanishi was a gate person from the Library to collect Ambassador Saito Hiroshiri [phonetic]. He didn't come, memorial hall in this building. So probably after Sakanishi-san went back to Tokyo, and met Fujisaki taishi [phonetic]. Probably at that time he was already meant to be a taishi, ambassador to the United States. >> Isn't there something in her diary... >> Yes. >> City boy came. [ Laughter ] >> Well, I will take a close look through. [Laughter] He was a, she was a good person, and there are some letters from the Embassy of Japan here in the Washington, D.C., coming to Sakanishi and talk about the plan to create a memorial hall. Thank you very much. We would like to move to the symposium section. To begin the symposium, I would like to confirm that everybody found this handout package on your seats. This contains four documents, and if you do not have this handout, can you just raise a hand? I believe we put every, oh, okay. [ Silence ] And you will find today's schedule, which has the symposium title [inaudible], and you will also find a script from Dr. Chiku's speech, just for your reference, and some future event printed in the yellow paper, whose speaker is also here today, and Asian Division Friends Society brochure. So does everybody have it? Okay. So we will move to the symposium from now. To leave more time for the panel discussion and Q and A, I will give only a brief, brief bio to every speaker. And you will find more information than the bios in the handouts. I print out the detailed bio in here. So if you would like to know about the each speakers, please take a look. The first speaker is Dr. Manabu Yokoyama. Dr. Yokoyama has been a professor of history at Notre Dame Seishin University in Japan since 1983. He has researched Dr. Shiho Sakanishi's manuscript called [inaudible], held in the Asian Division's Japanese collection, and he, Dr. Yokoyama published many articles on her. This title, this speech, today is "Sakanishi Papers: What Do They Tell Us?" Dr. Yokoyama. [ Silence ] >> Thank you very much, Mari-san, good of you to introduce me. I'm Yokoyama, came from Okoyama [phonetic], you know Yokohama. And now, today I'm introduce the other Yokoyama. Oh [laughter]. Sakanishi Papers: What Do They Tell Us? Introduction. The Sakanishi Paper is a group of a document with many personal papers concerning Sakanishi Shiho. Left a long time ago, more than 60 years ago, in the corner of the LOC, Asian Division. They have under LOC [inaudible] the Sakanishi documents as you know. I am a researcher in the field of the historical document, and that Mari-san told me that there have been interested Sakanishi papers are discovered at LOC and I was informed about them by my friend in the winter in 2005. I came to Washington the next day, next year, to learn more about them. It was very interesting. Okay. Sakanishi Shiho and Yokoyama Shigel [phonetic], yeah. Working together, he as a colleague in Japan, and she here in the Library of Congress, they accomplished a great deal of the Japan collection in a few short years. Sakanishi Shiho, she was born on December 6th, 1896, in Nataru Hukaido [phonetic], Japan. Shiuya [phonetic] is a very small village name. She attended the primary school, girls school, in Hukaido, Sheiso Yugaikin Yugako [phonetic]. She also attended the [inaudible] women school in Yokohama, Shosin Yogakin [phonetic], is now the Shosin Gakin. She worked as an English teacher at the Kantogakin in Yokohama, for one year. In 1922, she went to Massachusetts. She attended Wheaton College [inaudible], graduated in 1925. She then attended to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she obtained her M.A. and Ph.D., 1930. Her dissertation, Ph.D., an edition an overt dialogue on the state of Iran from the unpublished manuscripts in the random public record office, 1929. She taught for six months in 1930 at Hollins College, Virginia, as assistant professor of English literature. Very short time, I don't know why she was so, in short time she taught there, I don't know. She was employed by the Library of Congress, Orientalia Division, July 1930. That the beginning of her life this library. She continued her works at the Library until 1942. A very event happened in 1941. She was arrested by the FBI on the suspicion Her case was debated by a federal investigative commission for period of 6 months. It's very long time. And she was forced to return by ship to her native country Japan to the diplomatic exchange program between United States and the Japanese authorities. In addition to her work at LOC, she translated Japanese poems into English for her own publication, from Boston. She was interested in Chinese watercolor paintings and published her translations of several books on that subject. She wrote books about the Japanese Nodurama and Kogan [phonetic]. She was very meticulous and precise in her writing and emphasized the correct translation and [inaudible]. Sakanishi Shiho was a scholar and researcher. She was single, never married. I think she probably loved books and [inaudible] rather than married life. And she was a cat robber. It's a very unique point out of the document [inaudible] data. Next person, Yokoyama Shigel. He was born on January 22, 1896 in the same year in Shirojiri Nagano [phonetic], Japan. Graduated from Keiwo Gijuku [phonetic] University, department of literature in 1922, that time when she come to America. Mystery. Employed by Keiwo University as a teacher in 1924 and retired in 1942. He was a student of Tanka [phonetic] poetry and of Shimagaskyo, he was very versed in history [inaudible] of the Shinto and the Medieval Japan. His special collection is known as the Kagi Bunko [phonetic]. He became well known as a specialist dealing with rare, preserved, and original books. Now next. How the Sakanishi papers were discovered at LOC. Sakanishi papers have been unattended for a long time. And no one has looked into these documents since she left LOC 65 years ago. These papers and documents included personal papers addressed to Sakanishi and also manuscript and drafted articles. The total number of these papers amount to thousand and seven hundred sheets. If her other [inaudible] are added, they total 7,342 sheets, which is sheer amount [inaudible] all of them. Sakanishi Shiho was in the Oriental Division of the Library of Congress from July 1932, June 1942. Her life changed suddenly on December 7, 1941. The Sakanishi papers tells us many things which I will explain later. Two important questions there. Why were the Sakanishi papers left behind? And how was this collection of so many good Japanese classic books developed by Sakanishi in such a short period of time? Sakanishi's arrest. It was at 5 pm on December 7, 1941 that Sakanishi was arrested by FBI as a enemy alien. At her apartment in Georgetown, she was considered a hostile [inaudible], at the outbreak of the war between United States and Japan. In the case of Sakanishi and equally took place on January 13, 1942 and she was kept in U.S. custody. She left New York, Ellis Island for Africa on a Swedish ship [inaudible] home on July 18 via South America. She was transferred to the Japanese exchange ships Asamamaru [phonetic] in Dorankamarcus [phonetic] in Africa on the return to Yokohama in August 20. In that [inaudible] ships to the mission [inaudible] and that all the [inaudible], the very famous Japanese people all together on the same ships. Sakanishi never returned to LOC or her house, her home in Georgetown. The papers and the document of Sakanishi were left behind and attracted little note until recently. Why Sakanishi was considered a hostile [inaudible]? Sakanishi was very capable and participated actively in exchange of information as a Japan specialist among government officials and scholars and journalists in the national capital, Washington. She had close contacts with the officers and employees of the Embassy of Japan and therefore she was placed under heavy suspicion and surveillance. Besides the United States Navy Information Authorities mainly believed that she was not involved in any such enemy acts, including the Attorney General of the United States. But she was finally forced to leave America in a exchange ship The [inaudible] Japanese collection was developed in a very short period. In the Sakanishi papers, there are many personal letters exchanged between Sakanishi and Yokoyama, which served as a important key to understand the method and the reason why they developed the Japanese collection that you see in a short period of time. There are 57 letters, 386 sheets written by Yokoyama between 1937 to 1941. Yokoyama had a strong passion to build a excellent library collection for the LOC's Asian Division. Expressing his desire to come by the knowledge as a philologist and an old books collector, all the certain misunderstanding that took place between these person, two books collectors they were able to overcome their differences and develop a great library collection and service. Their professional relationship was deeply based on their strong love for books and commitment for excellent library collection development. Let's have a graph here. You can find out the... I'm sorry, 1938 and 1939. In 1937, she traveled to Japan. Okay? Next. Encountered with Yokoyama Shigel. She traveled to Japan in July 11, 1937, from San Pedro Port. Yokoyama wrote a fast letter to Sakanishi on 21st September. The [inaudible] book of collection philosophy of Yokoyama Shigel. My [inaudible] desire to aim to at collecting Japanese classic at the Library of Congress, 50 thousand to 60 thousand dollar will be necessary to build the best Japanese classic library in the world except [inaudible] library collection of the old [inaudible] printing books in Japan. The collection philosophy's book on human [inaudible] should go together, hand in hand, while we force our mind and soul upon developing the excellent rare library collection. LOC in Washington can become the world's number one library of printing type books. It should, it sounds a little strange if one has to study Japanese literature in the United States because it is normal for us to think this should be done in Japan. Such a strange thing will happen if Japan will not make a serious effort to collect classical books in her own libraries. She, Yokoyama Shigel wrote in letter, that letter, that's all. These are my articles about Sakanishi-san. The tireless effort and handiwork and mutual cooperation between Yokoyama and Sakanishi brought about the fruitful success and benefit for the Asian collection developing at LOC. By the combined effort of one with Japanese reading of [inaudible], scholar, librarian, the Japanese classic book Otersiwa [phonetic], collected in a very short time, short period of time, through her relentless effort and foresight to achieve a systematic enhancement of the Japanese classic materials in the Asian Divisions. Sakanishi continued and archive, and achieved her successful collection developing of classical books at LOC, which was initiated by Professor Asakawa Kan'ichi of Yale University. May [inaudible] will talk about him next. Well, a little bit enjoy some slide. Okay. Next, please. Yeah. Oh, you can see Miss Sakanishi-san in front. [Laughter] This is a bantering [phonetic] of Sakanishi's. She studied hard; it's very famous at that time, 1923. I found out this newspaper at Wheaton College. Next, please. Well, you can find her. [Laughter] Right side and front line, front and right side. See. And the next. A little bit forward, oh, I can forward. Oh, maybe she is wearing this kimono, so I suppose that on other days, she is planning to show the flower arrangement. Maybe. I suppose. And next. This is a clip of newspaper, and when she returned to Japan. And next. Honorary degree, University of Michigan, 1963. And the same, and the same. Okay. And the next is, oh please, thank you, next is Yokoyama-san's letter, 1941 March 16. [ Silence ] Okay. One more important and strange incident I encountered while I was doing my research on the Sakanishi project in Washington. One day I visited an apartment house in Georgetown on [inaudible] Street Northwest. Sakanishi Shiho used to live in that apartment. Strangely, and mysteriously, a red cat was sitting on the apartment front entrance. The red color of the cat was faded and unclear, which gave me a mysterious feeling that the cat may have lived with her in the apartment and was greeting me at the porch. And so I heard that the cat was presenting Sakanishi's spirit on [inaudible]. Next please, I introduced her [laughter]. Yeah, and [inaudible] please. Next one, please. Her. Just I'm thinking, that she was brung to her, but I amazed myself. But next time when I visited that apartment, she disappeared. Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >> Thank you very much for your presentation, Dr. Yokoyama. I was reading a memoir for the Sakanishi Shiho-san and she was a cat robber. And when she died, after five days actually one her... the cat Terrell [phonetic] died, found as dead. So it seemed like she really adored the cats, and the cats just [inaudible]. Well, the next speaker is Miss Ellen Hammond. Miss Hammond has been a curator of the East Asia Library at Yale University since 2002. In early 20th century, Dr. Kan'ichi Asakawa of Yale University purchased books for both Yale University and the Library of Congress. In development history of Japanese collection at the Library of Congress, Dr. Asakawa's acquisition amongst the most important prior to Dr. Sakanishi's arrival in 1930. Today, Miss Ellen Hammond will talk about Dr. Asakawa Kan'ichi, titled "Mission to Meiji [phonetic], Japan: The Great Buying Trip of Asakawa Kan'ichi." Miss Hammond. [ Silence ] >> Thank you, Mari. [ Silence ] Clearly the history of the Japanese collection at the Library of Congress is a story of many remarkable individuals, and my role today is to tell you about one, Asakawa Kan'ichi. I first encountered Dr. Asakawa in 2002 when I went to Yale, and every morning as I sat doing my work, he was gazing at me from the file cabinet across the room. It was a huge photograph, very formal, stern photograph, taken when he was a professor at Yale. And at the beginning I had no idea who he was. I learned quickly. He was my predecessor, the first curator at Yale. He was a professor of history there from 1907 until 1942, an eminent comparative historian, an expert on the feudal period in Japan and in Europe. He was the first Japanese citizen to be a tenured professor at an American university. He was a public intellectual. He wrote and lectured widely in both Japanese and English on issues of the day, especially having to do with Japanese-United States relations. He was a theorist of library science and had very set ideas about how collections should be classified and organized. And for our purposes today, it's important to note that he was really the first person to systematically collect Japanese books for the Library of Congress. Okay. This is actually a portrait of Asakawa that was painted from the photo in my office, so this is who I was looking at every day to inspire me as I worked. And this is just a quick outline of my remarks. I'll give you a little biographical information and then talk about this mission he took to Japan in the early 20th century, followed by three legacies that I think we get from Asakawa through the Library of Congress collections. Okay. Okay. Asakawa was born in 1873 in Fukushima [phonetic] prefecture, which is in the northern part of Honshu [phonetic], the main island. And this was just five years after the Meiji restoration so, you know, Japan is just making a transition from its own feudal age at this time. His father was a samurai originally, in the service of the lord of Nihuhom-Matsu [phonetic] domain, and became a schoolteacher after the restoration. He was schooled, Asakawa, very rigorously, in the Japanese and Chinese classics, and Asakawa, as well, devoted himself to the study of English. There's a myth that grew up around his English study. It was said that he was so determined to master English that he decided to memorize an English dictionary and would memorize all the vocabulary on two pages and then eat them. [Laughter] So I don't want to recommend this strategy to anyone but I can attest to the fact that his English was superb. I mean, the written documents he leaves us are just examples It was Asakawa's dream to study in the U.S., but first he went to Tokyo. He was a student at the Tokyo Seimongako [phonetic] which became Waseda University, and graduated from there in 1895. And then through personal connections, he was able to get a scholarship to Dartmouth in the United States, a full scholarship, although he had to find money to get his papers passage to the United States. So, let's see, this is a picture taken just before he leaves for the United States. So he's the one in the middle, the only one in Western attire among his friends who are clad in more traditional garb. [ Silence ] These, most of these pictures are from the Yale University archives. Okay. So he goes to the United States, and what follows is a decade of really extraordinary accomplishment. He graduates in German from Dartmouth and gets a scholarship to Yale where he earns a Ph.D. in 1902. Then he goes and teaches at Dartmouth for several years on the history and civilization of the Far East. Which is really early to be doing that in the United States. And then in 1905 there's discussion of him taking up a position at Yale and he decides to go home for a visit, because it's been about ten years since he's last been in Japan. And he has a vision of a great Japanese library in the United States. And he was, not only as a historian was he frustrated by not having historical sources around him to work with, but he had seen the British Museum, and he was impressed by their Japanese collection, and he felt the U.S. should have one, too. So he sets about very energetically trying to raise money. He contacts like the head of the American Oriental Society, you know, prominent scholars, trying to get them to, you know, see his vision, and figure out a way for him to get funded to buy books when he's back in Japan in 1906. So he sent out all these overtures, including to Yale, but nobody really takes him up on this, until finally he contacts Herbert Putnam at the Library of Congress. And Putnam is his jackpot. He subscribes to the vision of Asakawa. Asakawa goes to Washington. They come up with a deal for Asakawa to accept 5,000 dollars from the Library of Congress and go to Japan and build them a collection. Okay. I'm going to digress very briefly to ask the question, why was the Library of Congress at this time all of a sudden interested in collecting Japanese books? Well, certainly there was the opportunity because they had come to know Asakawa and what he had in mind. But also I think it's because of what's going on at the time. Japan is emerging as a modern, industrial and military power. It has just had two wars, defeating both China in 1895 and then Russia in 1905. So all this is in the headlines in Washington, and especially because at the Treaty of Portsmouth, which you see pictured here, the negotiations go on for the ends to the Russo-Japanese War, and Theodore Roosevelt, the US president, is very involved in this. In fact, he gets the Nobel Peace Prize for his participation in the peace. So, this is the age, and I'm sure Herbert Putnam was aware of how Japan was rising, and this may have spurred his interest in building a collection here. [ Silence ] Okay. This is Herbert Putnam, 8th librarian, and he served almost, well, 40 years altogether, and his correspondence with Asakawa was from 1905, but then Asakawa actually sailed the next year, arriving in Japan in February of 1906. He goes to Waseda and establishes an office to be his center for his collection development effort. And he starts to renew old acquaintances among the Meiji elite. Okay. This is a picture of Asakawa just after he arrives back in Japan in 1906. He is in the middle row, third from the left. And seated next to him is Okuma Shigeneibu [phonetic], who was the founder of Waseda but also a great Japanese statesman who later became prime minister. So this is an important contact for Asakawa, and he also knows many other very important figures in society at the time, and he's able to use them to establish a network for buying books. So what began is an 18-month, very intensive, complicated and strenuous effort to buy books and copy manuscripts for the Library of Congress, and also by this time for Yale. And Asakawa was, I mean, peripatetic. He visited libraries, museums, temples, government offices, private collectors, not only in Tokyo, but all throughout western Japan, especially in Narakyoto [phonetic] and points farther south. And he sought donations, he bought books, he consulted publishers' catalogs to select. He frequented all the bookstores. It was just a constant effort to get funding, to buy books, and to copy manuscripts for these two great collections in the United States. One rather interesting feature of this effort was his organization and management of a whole team of copyists to copy traditional manuscripts in calligraphy for the collections here. At one point he had twenty students working for him for a three-month intensive project to do this. They were, what he would do is get a temple to lend him a precious document and then take it to the copyists and have them do an exact copy in the calligraphy of the item. So it was very laborious. The copyists only got paid one and a half American cents per page, and they were always complaining about how hard it was. But what it meant was that very rare and unique manuscripts that Asakawa did not want to export were copied and made available in the United States. And I think it's very interesting because this is a time when of course Western typography has sort of overtaken xylography, the traditional wood-block printing. And yet at the same time, right at this transition moment, the scribal culture, you know, this millennium-long tradition of copying manuscripts is still going strong enough for Asakawa to find people who could do this for him. And I think it may be one of the last examples of sort of a massive copying effort going on before Western typography completely takes over. So the result of all this effort is, this, thousands and thousands of works streaming into Asakawa's office in Waseda University. It's a little unclear exactly how may Japanese thread-bound, kind of, soft-covered volumes came in through the Library of Congress, but we do know that he collected over 9,000 actual bound volumes that came to the Library of Congress. And this is just a photo of some of the bound volumes of both manuscripts and wood-block printed books. Asakawa felt very strongly that it wasn't practical to have the soft covers of a Japanese traditionally bound book coexisting on the shelves in an American library with other books. So he had them all re-bound, like this, in Japan, with the title stamped in gold on the spine. But once you open them, what you'll see is actually, say, a traditional handwritten manuscript or a bound book. Yeah. Okay. So what about these 9,000-some, you know, bound volumes, what did they consist of? Asakawa was instructed by Librarian of Congress Putnam to select the best editions and be very selective and focus on works in history and literature. But he went considerably beyond his instructions and was really quite amazingly broad ranging. So the topics covered run the gamut of human endeavor, from, you know, history and literature to religion, especially Buddhism and some Shinto, folklore, art, music, science, law, trade, bibliography, I mean the list goes on and on. Okay. [ Silence ] And I think, in this collecting effort, we can see a number of really important legacies from Asakawa. One is that throughout the time when he's trying to sell his vision of a great Japanese library he was very insistent on the importance this had for relations between Japan and the United States. So he has a very contemporary vision of books and their importance for cultural diplomacy. So... I think, until that time, there, I mean this was the age of the great world expositions, and it wasn't uncommon for the Japanese government to create pavilions at these expositions and create sort of, construct an image of Japan for the West. But I think Asakawa was perhaps the first to see that something similar could be done with books. And he very much felt that his collection-building effort was going to lay the foundation for good relations over time. I think Asakawa is also very much ahead of his time in his sensitivity to cultural heritage issues. He clearly stated to Herbert Putnam that he was not going to remove from Japan anything that was very rare and unique. So that's one reason that in the Asakawa collection here, today, there are no examples of pre-1600 ancient documents, that are called komonjo [phonetic] in Japanese. But, fortunately, he did make one, a few exceptions. And that's one reason that at the beginning of the exhibit that you'll see later is a yakumanto diurny [phonetic] which is a small Buddhist sutra printed in the 8th century. And actually they're not all that uncommon. I mean there are many, many examples extant because theoretically one million of them were printed, so he felt he could justify that because Japan, there were so many copies still available in Japan. The other thing I think is really important about Asakawa's collection-development effort is that he was so eclectic and broad-ranging in what, in his selection. He, you know, as a historian of course he's very interested in sources, but his definition of sources was very broad. And in addition I think because he had been interested in perhaps having a Japanese museum, he tried to collect almost anything that would show the development of Japanese society over time. And the result, and all aspects of Japanese culture and industry. And in some ways his vision for the collection presages what we see later, even after the war, in area studies, which is sort of a multidisciplinary look, a effort to grasp, you know, this country and this people, from all different aspects. So, you know, I think he was very much ahead of his time in that way as well. To conclude, I think it's fair to quote Asakawa himself on the results of this great buying trip in 1906-1907. And this, I'm quoting now from a letter he sent to Herbert Putnam after he had finished the shipments. He says, "I may say that the collection, which contains some 9,072 works, while is by no means complete, but has several gaps which should be filled, may be regarded as a foundation of a Japanese library more perfect than can be found anywhere else outside Japan." Okay. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Thank you very much, Ellen. Our exhibition will also include Asakawa's collection, object number 3, and you can see the Western bound. And also, if you grab the brochure, we have a quote from our Library's Annual Report in 1907. Asakawa tells about, that he decided to bound everything in the Western style, to meet these criteria of the Library in a collection to put everything vertical. Next speaker is Mr. Eiichi Ito, my respected colleague. Eiichi has been the reference librarian of the Asian Division's Japanese collection since 2004. He has deep knowledge of Japanese materials acquired by his former job at the Japan Foundation in Los Angeles, as well as by his diligence and enthusiasm to keep learning our collection. The title of his talk today is "Current Status of the Japanese Collection." Eiichi. [ Silence ] >> Well, thank you, Mari, and good afternoon. Well, personal history I found is always interesting, and, especially a person like Sakanishi and Asakawa. What I am going to do is not about the person but about the collection, so today I would like to briefly describe the Japanese collection at the Library of Congress after the end of World War Two and provide a snapshot of the current collection as it stands today. And I will also touch upon the direction and the challenges that we are envisioning for the future. So in essence I am bridging the past of the collections, as well as discussed by Professor Yokoyama and by Ellen, and the future that Professor Chiku will discuss later this afternoon. As the ambassador also mentioned, the Japanese collection size tripled from 1931 to 1941 as shown on the chart. The size of the Japanese collection pre-World War Two was, this is the exact number, so I hope, ah, no, the ambassador is not here anymore, but 34,694 materials in 1941, according to the Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress. The collection in 1941 covered many, mainly parts, history, literature, and religion, with some focus on imperial, rare books. As Ellen Hammond and Dr. Yokoyama discussed, much of the collection was built by... Asakawa and Sakanishi along with a major donation that was made back in 1905 by Crosby Stuart Noyes, the owner, editor and a journalist of the Washington Evening Star, a Washington newspaper. After the war, Japanese materials flooded into the Library from Japan, through the Washington Documents Center, WDC. It is said that somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 volumes of Japanese materials transferred from WDC to the Library. Here is a little bit of a background about the WDC. WDC was jointly run by the Navy and the War Department. It was started in 1943 and become a major center of translation of captured Japanese documents and other materials. WDC became on February 14, 1945 the central agency for initially handling the lower-priority captured Japanese documents and other materials. By mid-1947, the work of the WDC, then operated by the Central Intelligence Group, a predecessor organization to the CIA, was completed. In 1941, the record was transferred to the National Archives. The WDC also sent the Library of Congress a substantial quantity of books, newspapers and periodicals. In addition to regularly processing acquired materials from Japan, a large number of captured materials through WDC and other U.S. agencies posed a monumental challenge to sort, process, organize and make them accessible In other words, for the library, it was a challenge to transform a group of accumulated materials to an accessible and usable collection. How the Library meet the challenges? That's the question. One example was the Japanese Book-Sorting Project in 1949. The Library was able to sort, process, and catalog those materials from Japan with the assistance of librarians from six U.S. academic libraries, including Claremont, and Columbia, Michigan, Northwestern, U.S. Berkeley, and Yale University. Under a project called the "Japanese Book-Sorting Project." The project was designed to give away multiple copies to those libraries and in return get help in sorting and cataloging materials from the Library of Congress. Under this project, approximately 70,000 volumes were sorted and organized. Among them, 33,000 bibliographic records were created, and 30,600 volumes were sent to six libraries according to the Library of Congress Information Bulletin in 1950. Throughout the past 50 years after this book-sorting project, librarians and catalogers at the Library continue to process the WDC material in addition to materials acquired through other means. Moreover, researchers who are interested in the unique collection that were not available anywhere else including Japan, assisted the Library of Congress to sort, organize, record, catalog, and make the collection accessible to other researchers and the general public. For example, Professor Tetsuo Imura [phonetic] of the Institute of Developing Economies in Japan, and Hiromei Tanaka [phonetic] of the National Defense Academy of Japan, came to the Library to sort and publish catalogs. Thanks to these published catalogs as well as others, and the Internet and the online public catalog, records of many of the WDC materials are now accessible to researchers and the general public, one way or another. This chart, I'm sure you cannot read these small titles [laughter], but I just wanted to point out, this is the, the chart shows an outcome of the efforts, as published the catalogs and a checklist, materials, a checklist or list of materials by researchers and the Library's librarians. You can see the sort of, many published catalog coming out from this effort from 1980s and 1990s. Library still has some WDC materials that need to be sorted and organized, even now. For example, a hand-drawn Japanese military map of the battle of Latei [phonetic] Island, Philippines, in 1944, was just discovered among those, this summer by a Library junior fellow intern. Actually, it coincidentally happened to be the Yale undergraduates, thank you. So there is some weird connection between Yale and the Library of Congress. Now it is, the map is cataloged and housed in the geography and the map collection and waiting to be digitized. Now the snapshot of the current collection. The Japanese collection has grown to 1.17 million monographic volumes and over 6,400 active periodical titles, with 9,400 titles of old, inactive journals and magazines. The collection covers almost all academic subjects in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and the technology and the natural sciences. Except clinical medicine and agricultural science, for which the other two national libraries in the States, in the United States, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Agricultural Library are responsible. The WDC materials and other historical primary resources that the Library acquired from Japan after the end of World War Two, make the Japanese collection of the library so unique that it attracts researchers not only from North America but from all over the world, including Japan and other Asian countries. I would like to talk about the use of the Library's materials In general, the Library of Congress responds inter-library loan, ILL, and document delivery requests from libraries in the United States and beyond. It is interesting to note that the recent requests for Japanese science and technology resources make up almost 40% of the total number of requests. Often those materials are available only at the Library of Congress, outside of Japan, at least in the United States. The proportion of the collection in technology, engineering, including architecture and other natural science, is however, still about 10 to 15% of the Japanese collection at the library. This is the tried to show the comparison with the what we have here, and what people, Now a note about the digital materials. The Library of Congress has been successful in providing access to its Japanese collections in digital format, through the Internet. Several rare books, namely For Narahon [phonetic], nara [phonetic] picture books, and AD Genjimonalateri [phonetic], iraster Tale of Genji [phonetic], in nine, sorry, 1654, were scanned and made digitally available online. There are many more digital materials available from the other collections at the Library, for example the Princeton photograph collection, and the geography and mud collections, including over 2,000 [inaudible] prints, and the collections of posters of Japanese political parties in the '70s, and the Ino Tatataka's [phonetic] map of Japanese coast from the 19th century. Now the challenges ahead. The Japanese publication and the future collection building. The number of Japanese new publications including books in traditional format in 2009 is about 80,000. E-books publication is rising. In addition, there are now many e-resources including databases in business, science, technology, humanities and social sciences and the other general reference resources available in Japan. It is not possible to aim to build the universal collection. It has to be selected by examining the kind of Japanese collection that the Library would like to build, in order to be useful for researchers and the general public, for the coming decades. Working with the different sections of the Library, including Acquisition and the Bibliographic Access Directory, the Asian Division needs to carefully and constantly examine its collection policy, and be selective in acquiring Japanese resources with clearly established priorities. These consist of traditional publication and [inaudible] resources in different subjects and fields of research, including science and technology, along with arts, humanities and social sciences. Now it's preserving collection. The Library has been, have been continuing building rich culture and historical resources, such as pre-Meiji period rare books and pre-World War Two materials. It is therefore crucial now to preserve those resources, working with the conservation part of the Library in order to make sure that they can be accessed for many decades ahead, or many centuries ahead. This process includes preservation, conservation, re-housing, as well as re-formatting the media that contains the data and the information from the paper format to other formats. This may include continuing microfilming and further digitalizing resources to allow for the current and future research methodological tools such as data mining and text mining to be used. Collaborating with other research institutions and libraries. The Library and the Asian Division have worked with the Nichi Bunkin [phonetic], the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Japan, in digitizing some of the Library's collections to make them globally available to researchers and the general public online. Most recently, as the Dr. [inaudible] mentioned, the Library and the National Diet Library in Japan, agreed to digitize some unique Japanese collection this past July. The question now is, how will the Asian Division or the Library of Congress and its partners create not a sporadic but a sustainable collaboration together. The Library created and maintains the World Digital Library as a global collaborative initiative with 32 partners including UNESCO and the National Diet Library in Japan, now 85 partners from 55 countries all over the world. The Library is currently planning to increase the number of resources available online through the WDL, so the digital collection will grow as well. The Library needs continue seeking these kind of opportunities working Now the area studies library in the collection. James Neal [assumed spelling], Mr. James Neal, the university librarian of Columbia University, made the following comment on the current situation of area studies collections this summer, at the American Library Association's annual conference in Washington, D.C. "North American research libraries are collectively and systematically reducing their commitment and capacity to collect, organize, service, share, and preserve global publications and resources in all formats." The question is then, and I will finish here, as a collection at the national library, is the Asian Division responsible to address these concerns of the research and academic community? Thank you, and I welcome any thought or questions you may have. [ Applause ] >> Thank you very much, Eiichi. I often receive that question. "Mari, as a reference librarian, what do you do?" Well, I sometimes find it difficult to answer to that question, but Eiichi's presentation made a very good summary of probably a part of our work, and I felt like a pressure and such a responsibility to do, to work harder at the Library of Congress as a Japanese reference librarian, probably I should print out Shiho Sakanishi's picture and put it in front of me every day. "Oh, I have to work harder." [Laughter] Anyway, last speaker is Dr. Kakugyo Chiku. Dr. Chiku has been the professor of the Graduate School of Architecture, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, since 1981, and has also served as the director of the university library center since 1986. Dr. Marcum has been a good friend of Dr. Chiku, over two decades I believe, but he has been my mentor more than 15 years, regarding archives and the library science studies. He's very innovative. I recall he was talking about digital libraries when people were not much aware of such things. I am very excited to hear his talk today regarding his view on the future of the Japanese collection, titled, "The Japanese Collection of the Library of Congress: Its Past and Future, the Collection and Japanese Studies." Dr. Chiku. [ Silence ] >> Thank you, Miss, for the kind introduction, and I am very honored to be here today and I thank deeply Dr. Marcum and Dr. Young and Dr. Nakahara who invited me for this special occasion. As we all know, the Japanese collection of the Library of Congress is the largest and most comprehensive collection in Japanese language outside Japan. It includes many important materials which don't exist in Japan anymore. In the Japanese studies [inaudible] fields, this collection is indispensable, even for researchers who are living in Japan. Also before mentioned was this collection goes back to 1875. The first important remarkable expansion occurred in 1907 and 1908 as Kan'ichi Asakawa collected books on humanities and art in Japan on behalf of the Library. This is important because this was the first manifestation of the [inaudible] Library that the collection must be developed and that we response of the Library to the emergence of Japanese [inaudible]. In 1906, Asakawa started lecturing on Japanese modern history at the Yale University. In 1910, Japanese scholars such as Inohase Gitobi [phonetic] and Masaha Agasaki [phonetic] were invited as visiting professors to lecture on Japanese culture at several universities including Harvard University. And Yamato Ichihashi [phonetic], who was the first Japanese-American Japanologist, started to teach Japanese history at Stanford. In 1920s, several American scholars succeeded the movement and began to teach their courses on Japan at Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, and Minnesota. These American Japanologists had a little leading command of Japanese, therefore the demand was such in Japanese language did not increase. This is probably the reason why the Japanese collection at the Library was not enriched in this period. [Inaudible] Japanese studies always forget the relation between the United States and Japan, and the situation of demands for the Japanese collection of the Library was also the same. After World War One, in the 1920s, trade between the United States and Japan drastically increased, and confrontation between both countries over interest in China was intensive. Conflict on interest produced not only political tension but also social injustice such as enactment of Japanese Exclusion Act in 1924. The U.S.-Japan relationship was getting worse and, at this time, and against this backdrop the system for Japanese studies were enhanced in 1930s. The Harvard Yenching Institute, which was established in 1928, invited Sergei Irisef [phonetic] as a professor of Japanese studies in 1934. Irisef graduated department Japanese literature of Tokyo Imperial University in 1912 and taught Japanese history and literature at Sorbonne until 1930s. It is considered that the beginning of Japanese studies in the United States dates back to him. In the 1930s, Columbia and Stanford Universities, the University of Washington, Michigan, Chicago and California-Berkeley started research and education on Japan. Implement of Dr. Shiho Sakanishi as Japanese specialist [inaudible] advisor at the Library in 1930 and the expansion of the Japanese collection which she performed until 1941, was apparently the response to this trend. Dr. Sakanishi made the collection the first class resources for Japanese studies. Accordingly to the survey which was carried out by the Institute of [inaudible] in 1935, the number of scholars of Japanese cities was 107. And the only 13 among them could read Japanese. Therefore, the influence of Dr. Sakanishi as Japan specialist was probably indispensable for the research of these scholars. After the [inaudible] war broke out in 1941, the situation of Japanese studies was changed completely. It became [inaudible] for the knowledge and the information of the enemy country for defeating it and came to be led by it. Japanologist of whom only a limited number existed were not only asked to work for the government agencies such as a [inaudible], the Office of Naval Intelligence, and Special Research Division of the Department of State. But also they were assigned as teachers of Japanese language, newly [inaudible] Japanese language courses at major universities. Some of the later books and contacted research at the School of Military Government at the University of Virginia, which was exhibitioned by the U.S. Army, at [inaudible] major universities. The subject of Japanese studies shifted from humanities and arts to the knowledge of contemporary Japan, with [inaudible] intelligence, political economic, social, territorial and administrative issues. Since command of Japanese language became indispensable for the military campaign against Japan, Army established Japanese language [inaudible] at University of Michigan, and Navy created that at University of Colorado. Japanologist who participated in this activities became leaders and prominent scholars of Japanese studies in the post-war period, and their students formed the second generation of Japanese studies in 1950s. As a outcome with such of these scholars, such as Minji Handelook, Ashibayado Handuluk, Minsei Gaido, Sharafeis Gai [phonetic] and others are still highly regarded as influential studies on Japan at that time. However, the Japanese collection at the Library had little value of these studies because it did not include much practical information about contemporary Japan. During occupation period from 1945 to 1952, in order to reform Japan [inaudible] powers, conducted the multidisciplinary research of Japan. The outcome of the research, together with I will mention, accomplished the best of Japanese studies in the United States after the World War Two. DHQ also confiscated vast numbers of materials which Japanese military, the Ministry of the Interior, and government of Japanese colonies possessed. This confiscated material, such as the South Manchurian Database [inaudible] Company documents collection, became an important part of the Japanese collection at the Library because it is indispensable resources for studies concerning the history of [inaudible] Japan. At home, an institute on East Asian studies were established at six major universities, namely Yale, Washington, Michigan, Harvard, Columbia, and California-Berkeley. And these programs are enhanced throughout the 1950s, and they come to develop their own excellent Japanese collection. This means the library of Japanese collection gradually became just one of the many resources for Japanese studies in the United States, but it continued to be important because of uniqueness of its resources. In the United States, contribution to the country has historically been a virtue, and that is no exception in the field of Japanese studies. Even in peacetime. It tend to [inaudible] research. In the colonial era, Japanese studies were carried out mainly from the standpoint of being useful for United States global [inaudible]. For example, many resources at the time were interested in analyzing the process of successful modernization of Japan from Meiji era. If they succeed, this analysis and the structure of modernization is grasped, the U.S. may be able to apply this structure to developing countries, with United States interest. It regards that such research should be done interdisciplinary essentially. I don't know the progress of the research. Research areas Japanese studies were increasingly specialized on [inaudible] in political, economical, social and modern history areas. Such a specialized research, [inaudible] not library materials, but archival materials therefore necessity of the Library collection for Japanese studies gradually decreased. Until 1960s Japanese studies remained in the category "area study" which had been subsidized by the U.S. government as a part of its national policy. The necessity for establishing Japanese studies properly as an academic field began to be recognized in this period. It is purely, it is partly because Japan saw [inaudible] rapid economic growth and the U.S. and Japan often came to collide in economic aspect of affairs. In 1970s, although many universities were closed by the economic slump and all the public attention went to the internal programs such as civil rights, social and crime issues, rather than area studies of foreign countries. Only Japanese studies was promoted. It is because American scholar [inaudible] increased and the U.S.-Japan dispute over the [inaudible] therefore more advanced knowledge of Japanese legal, financial, investment-related issues come to be required. As a result, the number of Japanologists in professional fields such as law schools and business schools increased and a specialization of research as a result turned of research shifted from the area to the comparative study in which social and cultural difference between U.S. and Japan were analyzed by comparing its decision-making process in politics and economy, law system, social structure and so on. All of this kind of comparative study clarified difference of the U.S. and Japan in various aspects, it related to form heterogeneous Japan theory later. In the 1980s Japan began to imagine an economic giant and in this trade dispute was generated between the U.S. and Japan. The U.S. considered that the [inaudible] is best on the crossed nature of economic structure and market of Japan, and thought that the crossed nature was brought about by the financial policy of Ministry of Finance and the industrial policy of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The economic system for all powerful bureaucrat guidance, was heterogeneous, where the U.S. and this induced a heterogeneous Japan theory, and division [inaudible]. The U.S. considered that it was forced unfair competition and [inaudible] Japanese sentiment was intensified. According as this situation, the research which studies heterogeneity and uniqueness or political and economical system of Japan, flourished. Many other research [inaudible] of Japan and many of these research [inaudible] Japan, and the research was called "divisionist." However, Japanese studies as a whole was promoted. In this field, research on culture decreased and research of social science, research on industrial, technological development increased. According to a report issued by a Japan foundation in 1989, the number of the researchers of Japanese studies in the U.S. was 1,224. And the number of Japanese research institutions counted 306. It was pointed out that the number of researchers who are not scholars, such as lawyers and businesspeople or familiar researchers or scholars with excellent command of Japanese and Japan-born researchers, increased. 16 university libraries and research institute libraries possess Japanese collection. In 1991 the holding of Japanese collection of the Library of Congress amounted 814,065. The University of California, Berkeley, possessed 288,627. Three universities had more than 200,000 and seven universities had more than 100,000. Therefore, although the Japanese collections at the Library of Congress was still the largest, its necessity for Japanese studies became [inaudible]. In 1990, the Japanese asset price bubble collapsed. Japan entered the period called "Lost Decade" in which economic expansion came to an almost total halt. The situation had not improved in 2000, and Japan is still suffering from depression. Japan has been no longer the threat in trade and economy for U.S. and the incentive for to do Japanese studies fell, and the number of research candidates decreased. The trend of Japanese studies had been shifted from "divisionist" to a more object analysis. [Inaudible] since a study has to be based on the accumulation of Japanese studies over a half-century, the research subject had to be specialized more with [inaudible], and therefore the highly advanced command of Japanese had to be required. For example, in the case of the historian, in order to carry out specialized research, he has to be able to read documents written in historical handwriting which ordinary Japanese cannot read. It did not [Inaudible] that the many of Japanologists who are active now grew up in Japan were having long experience having worked in Japan or studied at the Japanese university. Specialization of the research subject also means a fair amount of diversification. Today the subject of the Japanese studies covers not only [inaudible] of studies such as economy, politics, industry, society, history, and [inaudible], and art, but also modern history, contemporary literature and art, contemporary culture, local history and local culture. According to a survey in 2001, 60% of Japanologists are studying the phenomenon [inaudible] after the 19th century. In the study of contemporary culture, the issues of subculture and popular culture are particularly attracting many researchers, although the number of researchers and pragmatic research degrees of Japanese studies has become very fertile by diversification, specialization and deepening. The newest trend of Japanese studies is that that number of Japanese who study contemporary culture of Japan, especially subculture and pop culture is increasing, and courses and programs for these things have been established at many universities. Moreover, the number of people fascinated with these cultures is also increasing quickly. There are also many people who would like to study Japanese language and to acquire the first-hand knowledge of these cultures. This is a new area of study and there is almost no Japanese research institution which is committing resources on this subject. Although the Japan Team of the Library recommends a acquisition policy of manga recently, and started to develop a collection, not only manga and anime, but publication, pop culture after 1945 should be collected. According to the change of the mode of Japanese studies which has been described above, the character of the information and the resources these researchers need have been changing. According to a survey conducted in 2001, what researchers need the most are primary resources. Although monographs and books are still important, good research is no longer possible if the research is dependent solely on them. Since primary resources is information on a highly specialized, narrow area, comprehensive collection is impossible. Although it is natural that the Japanese collection should acquire primary resources, which compiled with the contents of the reference suggestions, more important is acquisition of the resource which enhances the value of the [inaudible] primary resources, such as a gotoshipai [phonetic] manuscript, and the okomats santoro [phonetic] manuscripts, which were acquired last year by Japan Team. These two are partly complementary resources to the South Manchurian Database Company documents collection. Researchers demand primary resources in multiplex forms, such as manuscript, documents, drawings, images, movie clips, interviews, audio recordings, survey data [inaudible]. Although some of these resources might be reproduced and published, much of these is a sole source. Therefore, since access to the resource like that is not easy. Most researchers hope strongly that primary resources are [inaudible] and can be searched through the Internet, and [inaudible] copies can be obtained. So the most important deployment to the researchers occurring in the last decade is improvement of accessibility and availability to primary resources by means of Internet. Building of the Japanese collection of the Library, it is expected that not only the primary resources of earlier period such as the [inaudible] prints and the rare books, but also the modern primary resources will be [inaudible], and made available for researchers. Moreover, published historical secondary resources are primary resources in the research on that period, in that period which they were published. Therefore, the books published before 1945 can be defined as primary resources, and digitization of such books is also desired. 170,000 books of Meiji [inaudible] of the National Diet Library holdings are now available on the website of the NDL. 70,000 books of the Kaio [phonetic] University Library holdings that were published before 1945 have already been brought to the Google book search, and they can be downloaded. So it is welcome that the Japanese collection of the Library, in collaboration with the National Diet Library is planning to digitize censorship collection of the Home Affairs Ministry and Imperial Army and Navy collection, but other books published before 1945 in Japanese collection should also be digitized. Each [inaudible] digitization is not means of preservation for resources but enhancement for accessibility and availability of resources and of viewing fragile resources. Persistence of digital data has not yet been proven. In any event, by the extensive digitization of holdings [inaudible] data sets resources with that of the world wide web, and the providing advanced reference services, Japanese collection of the Library will continue to be the best [inaudible] resources not only for Japanologists but American people who are interested in Japan. Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >> Thank you very much, Dr. Chiku. Now we will move to the panel discussion. We will do the panel discussion a little bit first, and take a Q and A. It pleased me very much when taking the RSVP's to see there are diverse category of the people and specialists, like a library and some other institutions, conservators, the formatting specialist, and the many many many. So I hope this discussion will be meaningful to everybody and I also hope that everybody will participate in the Q and A session. [ Inaudible speaking ] Eiichi is going to be the moderator. >> I think it's, I keep saying impossible, but it's not impossible to pack the history of this Library collection in one afternoon, so we asked each speaker just for ten minutes for their talk, but I would like now, them to, if they have any additional comments to their own talk, first, and then we can go from there. So Yokoyama-san, if you want to make some comments. >> And these five years I'm researching about the Sakanishi-san and trying to the Michigan and her [inaudible] Kaido [phonetic] and this library had many materials... what she thought while she was staying at the Library of Congress, almost is her personal materials, but I want to recognize and analyze this moment, so if you have some questions about her, so I want ask you. >> So, Ellen. >> For those who are wishing to explore more about the Asakawa books in the Library of Congress, I would refer you to a bibliography of all the rare books here prepared by a professor named Watanabe in 2003. And interestingly, he says that in the preface to this book, that the Asakawa collections and many of the other rare books were actually kind of classified as secret because I think they got bound up in this WDC collection that you mention, or somehow were classified with contemporary materials that they didn't want shown. So apparently it was a little hard to access them for some time, but now because of the publication of this bibliography, it's possible to know exactly what's there. The other thing I'd just like to say is that, interestingly it's almost 100 years now, or it's a little over a hundred years, since Asakawa went to Japan to buy these books, and at that time, you know, the scribal culture, and wood-block printing and typography were all kind of vying with each other for continued existence, and now we of course find that print itself is vying for its existence as we face these digital collections that some of the speakers has talked about, so it's another very interesting moment and perhaps appropriate that we should be meeting this year. Thank you. >> Yeah, I forgot of only one thing. I think that information technology will really be developed [inaudible] in the future, but there is no [inaudible] way for a library. We have to watch carefully the change of the trend, the demand of the patrons. Library should be about the collection according to the demand of the public. >> Thank you. Dr. Brown. >> Oh, well, I would add, although our focus is Japanese collections at the Library, there's also been some discussion of Japanese studies and I would just want to at least make note that the general collections in multiple languages, obviously a lot in English but probably French would be really important to have a lot of materials that would be useful for a Japanese studies. So, well obviously we're focused on the Japanese collections, you might want to think more broadly, and when it's the appropriate time, I have a question I would like to ask about the Japanese collections, but I'll wait for that. >> Peter. >> Well, thank you very much. I've been thinking about history but I've also been thinking about the lessons of history. And in the presentations this afternoon, I caught several themes, one of which is that there was a terrific amount of personal involvement and individual initiative in fulfilling a personal but also an institutional and national vision, with regard to the way that collections developed here at the Library, and at other institutions. But I can't help but think that that focus on collections and individualism is a lesson for us, but I'm not exactly sure how that relates to the future. Because in a lot of ways, it isn't the individual so much anymore, but it's the collective institutional strategic direction that really is important. The other aspect, I think, that's critical, and from our history, that we can carry forward to the future, is an element of collaboration. Because I think from the very early on, this collection here at the Library has not grown in isolation from other U.S. institutions, other world institutions. My sense is that the collaboration and cooperation of partnerships is a very important theme and one which needs to be carried forward into the future with a vision that focuses not simply on collection development but also focuses on the needs of the specific individual users, researchers, and scholars in the future, to which I think the marrying of the preservation element and the access element are critical, and I think that's an important lesson for us from this afternoon's activities. >> Thank you. Peter summarized this couple of points, and myself, as a reference librarian here at the Library, I, one of the, I shouldn't say frustration, but one of the disadvantage working in this great Library is that unlike Ellen's position or Warrick [phonetic] in academic institution where you can clearly see your, how do you say, clients, patron, users, every day, now here it's the national library and we don't have a fixed or targeted users for the Library. So that's my, always I want to see how to build a collection, how to make access easier for people for I don't see really clearly every day. So that's the struggle for me, personally. So if Ellen can comment, your experience or, what's difference from here to your Yale University library. >> Actually, it's not that different. [Laughter] People are not coming to the libraries as much as they did, and our goal is often to make things available to them on their desktop, which is why we spend a lot of our budget licensing electronic resources, delivering articles to them online. So in some ways I very much share your frustration about not being able to see people. The other factor I think that's very different now, even with the current budget crisis, scholars tend, even graduate students tend to be off to Japan for spring break, for summer vacation, to pursue their research. So it causes us to think again about things like developing a national collection of, you know, making sure that all Japanese publications are available somewhere in the United States, because so many people go to use them somewhere else in Japan. >> Any comments from the panel? This. Maybe we can come, or should we take questions? >> Well, I [inaudible] the same conclusion that Eiichi raised that we may want to hear, because as I say there's a diverse specialist and different occupations, and what are your expectations, for Library collection? And most of them may not know up to now that we have a collection of 1.17 million items in the Asian Division of the Japanese collection, so if you have any questions on the expectations or requests or whatever you want to say, please raise a hand. TJ [phonetic], this person first, and then next, you. >> Actually, I have a question. How many people have used the collection here, not probably you can say, [inaudible] the Japanese collection, if you can raise hands? Oh, well, that's not too bad. >> Oh, would you please tell your name and then the question? [ Background speaking ] >> Here we go. I'm Alan Abramson [assumed spelling]. I happen to be the president of the American Co-Association [phonetic] and so this is directly relevant to the last few minutes in terms of a possible set of customers, as an example to other kinds of customers, beyond academic research, a lot of practical interests out there. So my question starts out by being, to what extent are there, in the collection, important historical documents related to the history of ego [phonetic] in Japan? >> I'm aware some group of materials, even from probably 19th century, in the Japanese collection. I'm not sure if these were acquired by Asakawa or Sakanishi, but nevertheless it's in the collection. Yes. >> Part of the reason I ask is not just personal interest with respect to my organization... >> Right. >> But when you have that many items in the collection, there are many people outside the academic research area who might be interested if they knew it existed. And so, creating a list of potential clientele in the broader world, beyond the academic world, and possibly packaging small, virtual exhibits, of what's available in the Library, could then attract a whole new clientele. >> Sometime I feel like I'm a customer service representative to deal with users, someone like you. The challenge, one of the challenges for me is to serve the collection to DL [phonetic], maybe someone beyond academic, a lay person. Asia collection, Japanese collection is in the Japanese language material. Often Mari or me or a colleague [inaudible] has to be a sort of, not the language interpreter, but the sort of culture interpreter. >> Yeah. >> What's in there. So that's the kind of challenge that's probably difference from working for a university library, which has their graduate program Japanese studies or Asian studies or other disciplinary studies. So, Sakanishi was a great collection-builder, but I'm sure she was a great reference librarian, and probably that's get her into a problem or trouble with the U.S. government, being conceived as a spy. So that was interesting when I was listening to Yokoyama-san's talk about her getting in trouble for doing her job as a librarian to serving that users. >> Well, one of the efforts to introduce our collection to the broader audience in paralleled in our work in institute and outreach programs such as today. And the Library strongly suggests we do the outreach program to make the awareness to the people that we have this collection, and this is for everybody. Not for only to targeting to the researchers. So of course this is the Congress' library, but is also the American people and people all over the world. So we have been making an effort, but getting to know this collection, please spread the word. And then, anybody who is 16 years old or older and then, well, we may ask the purposes especially to use the rare books or whatever, but everybody is welcome, you know. Please come over and look at our materials. Yeah, there are a tremendous amount of books that are waiting for you in storage. Okay, the second person? >> My name is Liber Cot [phonetic], so I'm going to ask I think an obvious question. If you're looking for more clients, have you considered translation of the digitized version with machine translation? These days, I wouldn't think that's all that difficult to do for selected books. I personally don't want to slog my way through Kanji [phonetic] when I could possibly get an English language version of something. >> Ah, yes. [Laughter] In terms of, let's say, text mining, scan the documents, scan the texts, scan the books and return into the searchable text, the technologically is not quite there yet. That's what I am understanding. Unlike the Roman languages, because as you know very well now, the Chinese characters, the Japanese characters, are really, really lots of variety, more than 26 characters, so I think, I hope that working with the National Diet Library, and for this digital collaborative project, we can sort of find some experimental experience, and to go forward to that direction. And I'm not the technology person, so that's all I can say. >> Peter. >> Mari, picking up on that point, I think the machine translation capabilities, through Google and also through Microsoft, are getting very sophisticated, but a prerequisite to that is you have to have the material in digital form. So one of the things we're doing is moving towards providing more of our collections in digital form, that presumably would admit then of having machine translation capability. I don't think we're going to go back to those days in 1906 where we had, what was it, 20 different scribes [laughter], copying material from Japan. But I do think we can, shall we say, take the same flavor of that, and apply it through having the machine do what's best, what it does best, and hopefully do what people do better, which is interpret and read this material for cross-cultural understanding. [ Silence ] >> Oh. Can you wait? The front first. Yeah. [ Background noise ] >> My question, Frank Joseph Shulman [assumed spelling]... >> Would you please tell your name first? >> Frank Joseph Schulman. >> Okay. >> My question has to do with the development of the collection and the role of the Japanese collection as a whole during the 1930s. Why is it that the Library of Congress was taking particular interest in building its Japanese collection during the 1930s, when academic and research libraries in the United States to a large extent were not doing that? Why is it that the collection that Sakanishi was building was primarily in the humanities, and you did explain in terms of the interests, but why not also in the social sciences, given the fact that this was a collection in part for the U.S. government, which presumably was more interested in trade and political issues and contemporary affairs, as opposed to Japan's traditional history and culture? Finally, related to all of this, to what extent was there support outside of the Library of Congress, for the development of the Japanese collection here during the 1930s? [ Background speaking ] >> [Inaudible] the reason why she made up that kind of special collection, but I think, when she get the job of this library and she worked hard for the other person, what she needed, and that time, maybe, I thought that she thought that the Japanese collection was building up, increasing at that time, so she want to help them, but I don't know why, the reason, I don't know, but maybe I can find out that reason, because there are many personal letters there in the Sakanishi documents there, so communication and document there, so I will be find that [inaudible], I'm sorry. >> Peter. >> Frank, I think your questions are fascinating. I think they're really revealing of the culture, what this institution was like at the time, but also I think the fact that historians were charged with bringing material in. I think one of the things that's important about the Library's deep collections is that they are primarily geared towards historical, cultural, the humanities area, but I think as Eiichi indicated, we're moving from that model into a much more multidisciplinary perspective, with social sciences and the scientific and technology material not only being requested more, but also the Library moving to broaden its scope into those deeper areas for serving, yes, Congress, but also serving a much broader audience of those who are not Japanese specialists but rather planning to do business or to do negotiations with Japan in a global marketplace. >> Tomako [phonetic]. >> Ah, just a footnote, ah, I'm Tomoko Stein [phonetic], science and technology, Japanese science and technology specialist. Following up Dr. Brown's comment, we have actually in the world, I went to a European meeting of the Japanese specialist, and there are a great collection of the science and technology materials. For example, at the [inaudible] of France, and that is because the Okakei Gaikukujin Koshi [phonetic], visiting professor from France, went to Japan, brought back a lot of Japanese materials, but wrote about Japan in French. So you know, we shouldn't restrict our collection in Japanese only, it should be some way of different languages, and also the division-wise, it's sponsored by Asian Division so I'm not discouraging you guys, but we have a collection in the motion picture in Japanese language, in the movies, or manuscript division, POW's collections, and many other, you know, letters and correspondence, [inaudible] collections. You know, so you can look some more whole, instead of just limiting the format and the language. >> Yeah, sure. Speaking about that, is Kathleen [assumed spelling] still here? Has she left? Okay, well there is one specialist of all the fine prints from the Prints and Photographs Division here, but she seems to have already left, so, oh Kathleen's right there. Okay, Kathleen, can you talk about a little about the Japanese collection in your division? >> Absolutely, and the Asian Division collaborated with the Prints and Photographs Division around 2001, to put on a major exhibition and to publish a catalog sort of introducing the visual collections in those two places. So those are good resources. There's an online web site that also gives a good sort of introduction and snapshot, but, and you mentioned, I think a number of the speakers mentioned the visual collections are very strong. And also geography and maps, manuscript division, film. As you said, you can go through all of the languages and trace this. Does that answer? >> Yes. >> Does that help? Good. >> And then research-wise we are already at what Tomako said, and then this exhibition or symposium was just mounted by our division. We could not include any other division's collection. However, when the researcher or leader comes, we always suggest to go to the other division to look at further details or further information. So, any other questions? Ah, Medi [phonetic]. >> Going back to the question about Sakanishi collection in 1930s, it's not only rare books. She was trying very hard to update serials, magazines, and regular printed books for many fields including social sciences, economics, so rare books is only part of her effort. And she raised money personally to buy some rare books. So she wasn't using only LOC money. Just one more thing in Sakanishi collection, we have some letters from Asakawa to Sakanishi, just connecting two speaker subjects. >> By the way, the lady who just spoke is Mai Fujishuro-san [phonetic]. She has been the cataloger. She has already retired, but has processed a tremendous amount of our materials. And she is still now a volunteer every day to come to the Library, every afternoon, to help us to make the things available to the public. Other questions? >> Mari. Oh. Just a... >> Here. >> A comment because we've been talking a lot about the past and something about, you know, current collections, and I want to raise questions certainly about the current situation but also about the future in terms of subject matter. So much, when the world is not looking at the Middle East, we're looking at China, at least in the Western world, and we know of course that there's a long, complicated, and rich history of relationships between China and Japan, and it strikes me as we think about the changes both in disciplinary interests and subject matter that the U.S., not just that the U.S.-China relationship would be a particular area of importance, but also it seems to me there's so much that the Japanese could tell Westerners about China and the relationship with China that would extremely valuable. It would be a perspective from what I could, I think we can say, is a trusted partner, but that's going to be quite different from the American perspective. And I'm wondering to what extent the Division is either beginning to think or has been thinking about some of those critical, I hate to use this word in Washington but I'll use it anyway, strategic relationships [laughter], where the collections could really serve the Congress or at least those who are doing research on behalf of the Congress and the government. >> Well, as you mentioned, Japan has a long, long tradition that Chinese studies, and it's very deep and going back many, many centuries. And the Japanese collection, I mean Japanese language collection, includes lots of Chinese studies book by Japanese researchers and scholars, so we keep going that direction, too. And even contemporally scholars on Japan, from Japan, we actually in the collection policy, we have the mentioning about Chinese studies or other Asian countries' studies from Japan, so that's the direction we are taking right now, And, in fact, there are quite demand for studies of China from researchers around town, to come to the library, including university professors, to study, use, utilize the Japanese collection on China. And recently, you mentioned the Middle East, Middle East studies in Japan is not that strong compared to Chinese studies. However, recent, of course, anybody look at that region, and there are more and more scholars, not just a journalist, but the scholars, young scholars, actually there was a young Japanese scholars at Tokyo University, he came as a visiting scholar at the Wilson Center, which has a strong connection with this collection and between. So he stayed here and he used our collection. Also we ask him for his recommendation to the direction of the collection development as a strategy, so we are very aware of the current or possible future direction for collection developing in that area. >> I have to say, one or two more questions. [ Background noise ] >> I am Victor Kim [assumed spelling]. I have a somewhat relaxed question, not so much serious academic questions. Yokoyama-san say, I was very much interested in your presentation, especially at the end, the relationship between Sakanishi Shiho and the cat. And then I was very fascinated because your very unique interpretation of that. So let me ask you this question. Sakanishi Shiho was a Christian or a Buddhist? The reason I ask that question is the rebirth of the human soul in the form of cat interested me, so I was wondering, Sakanishi Shiho was a Buddhist, I mean, was she a Buddhist or a Christian? And then, if she was a Christian, do you think she would be fascinated, a cat standing in front of, greeting you, at the apartment? I just, kind of curious question. Thank you. >> Very interesting question, because I have never [inaudible] I was a Christian. Sakanishi said, I've never heard that [inaudible]. But maybe she was a Christian, because the elementary school that [inaudible] Japanese went to school, the next [inaudible] school in Otal [phonetic]. Rodes [phonetic] School was Vinish Rodes [phonetic] coming from United States and build a small women's school, and she stayed there two, two or three years, and, the next move to Seoshin [phonetic], is a Christian's women's school. And she wrote something, she attended to the Tokyo Yoshidaigak [phonetic] and that's a Christian university, and Wheaton College is Christian. But, and, the name, her name, Shiho, I wrote Shiho "S-H-I-O" and the pamphlet may be "S-H-I-H-O," Shiho. Very interesting. Shio is salt. And Shiho is the same pronunciation in Japanese, Shio and Shiho. And the next, her father was a Christian, [inaudible]... >> Salvation Army. >> Salvation Army. He was a very early member of the Salvation Army at that time. So, I am thinking about, she is very sympathy with Christianity, but she never wrote, "I was a Christian." And her works worked for other persons who needed her, it's very, very, I understand, because I am working at a Christian women's university, so I'm very eager to understand what the thesis say. And think about that time. >> Well, two, okay, sure. >> My name is Carol Sang [assumed spelling]. I'm a member of the academic profession whose audience you want to get beyond, but I did have a question for Ms. Hammond about the Asakawa collection that he brought to it. You did mention having people making facsimiles of documents. Were these primarily kimonjo, were these Eto [phonetic] period? They were. And so about how many documents, I mean I, I also know that his, or if memory serves, his specialty was kamokoto [phonetic] period, mostly 12th to 14th century. Did he make an effort to get a large number of these kimonjo copies, given that he was not going to be bringing the originals in? Or was it just a small number so that there would be some examples? >> He did not try to acquire as many for LOC as he did for Yale, because as you know, this was his period, I mean, you know, pre-modern, and so he wanted to have them available for himself I believe. And so, I've read that LOC got about 60 different works copied in this way, and I believe they were all pre-modern, you know, kimonjo, ancient documents. At Yale, we have over 5, well, we have about 500 manuscripts that he acquired, but many of them are Eto period, and I've never done a count to see how they break down, but I would imagine there are more there, so that's about all I can tell you. [ Silence ] >> Well, to conclude, to think about the future, conservation is one of the most important issues, and I am aware Mr. Andrew Hare [assumed spelling] from Smithsonian is here, and just seeing our former liaison from the Library of Congress Conservation Division is here. To present a short comment for us. [ Background noise and laughter ] >> Can I ask questions to these two people? >> Well, Eiichi has... >> Yes. To make, make for you to speak easier, I have a particular question. As Ellen mentioned, Asakawa re-bound the Japanese binding books to Western style, and as he wrote "I should add that" to the letter to the librarian, Herbert Putnam then, "I should add that the old method of book-binding in Japan, being inconvenient for handling in the libraries, I thought it best to re-bind them in cloth and leather in the European manner. This was accordingly done under my supervision. As a result, the re-bound volumes are less in number than the original thin and soft volumes and occupy less space." That gives me the problem to my daily work, because Western-bind the quality of the paper isn't good, and some books are completely deteriorating. So recently we had a debate between us and the conservation people, that we should re-bind to the original, Western binding, or we should re-bind to the Japanese style. That's also the question about do you perceived a book, especially rare books, old books, as a art object, or just a meth... the container of the information of data. So probably you can give us some enlightening answer [laughter] to this question. [ Silence ] >> Jesse. >> Hello. That's loud. Thank you for bringing up one of the thorniest questions that I think any of the collections could have to face, would have to face, about these volumes that were bound in by the collector for the sake of their wellbeing, and yet they've been taken out of their original bindings, which have... They are considered valuable. Their original bindings have so much historical information and bring cultural information for modern readers. It's a very difficult question to address, and I think that there should be much more discussion about it because as they fall apart, then the Western re-binding needs to be reconsidered as the leather deteriorates and they would need to be put back into constructive and supportive structure and I don't think I can particularly answer that, but it's one that Yale and the Library of Congress will have to address as the Western bindings continue to deteriorate. I personally think that the Japanese binding structure is more sympathetic and more supportive to the paper itself than a Western binding. [ Silence ] >> To say a little bit more, hopefully building off of what Jesse just said, the collections that we look after at the Freer Sackler, are more paintings, so slightly different format, slightly different use of objects, but I think relate to the books here at the Library of Congress in a very important way. I think people are talking a lot here about the knowledge, the information contained within these objects, and there's always that dichotomy of the information and then the object itself. And that's not even talking about the information that comes from the nature of the object. So I think that these early collectors who were so important to building these important not just here at the Library of Congress but all the incredible art collections and artifact collections that we have scattered across America, is I think, had an awareness of the culture of America at that time. And that was not a culture that was deeply filled with an appreciation of how these foreign objects function. And so perhaps there was a need to adapt certain objects to the culture that they were being imported into. So an example, obviously here, is putting Western bindings on books. From my perspective now, I can look back at that and say, "What a clever decision," in the sense that, because those books were put into a Western context, perhaps they survived better during that certain period of history, than they would have if they were in their traditional binding formats. The example I can give from the Freer's own collection, is that many of the paintings, some several hundred, were actually placed onto panels. And if you go into the Freer you've seen them. They're still hung in many of the galleries today. And I think that that was a reaction during the, certainly, '30s, '40s, '50s, to realizing that having a very vulnerable format of something which is flexible is rolled and unrolled as, if you are at all aware of hand scrolls or hanging scrolls, you know how vulnerable these things can be. And by putting a hanging scroll onto a panel, you're basically turning it into the same format as a Western painting, which the Western audience would have been more familiar with and perhaps because of that there's less mechanical damage to these objects as a result. Of course be aware that today we're thinking about that larger context and we're putting things back into those traditional formats, but the key factor is that we're also talking a great deal about the care, the handling, the display, the storage of these objects. And we're differentiating them from Western objects, and we're educating people on the importance of maintaining, caring for these collections. So unless you have that cultural knowledge of the object and how to maintain the object, I think that criticizing a decision that was made a hundred years ago to put a foreign thing into a foreign culture, I think you need some more insight into the nature of that object and its use through time. So perhaps we're at a level now where we can begin to discuss that much more open, much more complicated relationship that we have with these objects, and appreciate them in greater levels, which leads to the talk coming up next week. >> Well, thank you very much. I wish we had more time to talk about other issues, too, but time has come. Actually, thirty minutes behind of the time. And please join the refreshment and mingle with the speakers a little bit, and please try to go to the Asian Division Reading Room, to look at the exhibition. The Reading Room closes at 5, but we have different way to lead you to get out. You cannot get out from the front side, but we can lead you so you may be able to stay a little bit after five o'clock. And additionally, you received a yellow paper in the package, which is next week presentation by Miss Kazgo Hioki [phonetic]. She is actually a conservation librarian, conserver originally she used to work at the library. She does research on the Wasan mas [phonetic] book, in the Library of Congress collection. So if you have time for us, please join that presentation next Tuesday. Thank you very much for coming, and enjoy the refreshments. [ Applause ] >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.