Arrangement and description of a Japanese business collection held at the National Archives of Australia

An experiment

Abstract

This article is a report on an arrangement and description project dealing with the records of a Japanese firm, Nosawa & Co., held at the National Archives of Australia, Sydney Office. A trading company, its main activity was the export of live sheep to Japan. Its records represent one collection, among twelve such, seized by the Australian government during World War II. The firm was a relatively small enterprise with no clear organizational structure.

The project team respected the companyʼs original arrangement system which it had adopted for the long -term preservation of its non-current records. In light of that, they created eleven series. The compilation of a three-level description, i.e. fonds, series and item, followed. Through further analysis of the internal structure of the records, it became clear that the characteristics of the companyʼs business were well reflected in its record-keeping system. Therefore, it is argued that it is appropriate from an archival point of view to arrange company records, especially of smaller enterprises like Nosawa, according to a firmʼs original record-keeping systems established to reflect particular business needs.