Searching Archival Documents for Lost Ransho (Dutch Books)

A Collection Formerly Owned by Asakusa-bunko

Abstract

Ransho , or Dutch books imported during the Edo period in Japan, played an eminent role in Japanese history. However, after the Meiji Restoration, they were replaced by books in English, French, etc. and became forgotten. The Ransho collection of Asakusa-bunko is one such case.

Asakusa-bunko inherited the collection of the Shojakukan, the first government library open to the public in Japan, and it possessed more than 9,000 volumes of Ransho that had been formerly owned by the Edo Shogunate. When Asakusa-bunko ceased to exist, its collection was transferred to the Ueno Museum. When the Cabinet Office Library was established in 1884, a request was made for books owned by government agencies to be concentrated in that library. The Ransho collection formerly owned by Asakusa-bunko was lost in the process of its transfer to the Cabinet Office Library.

I studied existing Ransho in the Tokyo National Museum and in the National Archives; I also examined various government records from the Meiji period to discover lost Ransho . I report on this process and on the results of my study on the lost Ransho .