Abstract
Literary museums are assumed to function as both a library and a museum. However, since literary museums also publish pictorial records, museum bulletins, catalogues, and reprints, they can be seen to encompass publishing as a third function. Reprint serves an important role in research on modern Japanese literature because they lead researchers to discover new facts and they allow the facts to be confirmed while following a chronological path. An investigation of reprinted books and magazines at the Museum of Japanese Modern Literature revealed a total of 2,056 copies. In addition, it was found that 95% of them had been made between 1967 and 1985. There are several possible reasons why the creation of reprints slowed after 1986: there were fewer materials that required reprinting; commercial publishers started to reprint old titles; certain copyright issues came into play; the original copies became unavailable; the technology to produce reprints was no longer available; and the money to fund this kind of work was no longer available.
