1,507 titles including Inawashiro Collection and Sankei Kikuchi's manuscripts have been released

One thousand five hundred and seven title rare materials owned by the Main Library, including Inawashiro Collection from Tanimura Collection and manuscripts in Sankei Kikuchi's own handwriting, have been released.

From Tanimura Collection, 113 titles of rare materials on renga (linked poems) have been released. The collection was passed down through the Inawashiro Family that served the Date Clan of the Sendai Domain as renga creators and teachers during the Edo Period. Among them, Kagyou souzoku no ki (家業相続之記) is a diary handwritten between 1706 and 1708 by Ken'iku Inawashiro (猪苗代兼郁; 1655-1735).

Another remarkable collection released this time is 59 manuscripts in Sankei Kikuchi's own handwriting. Sankei Kikuchi (菊池三渓; 1819-1891) is a scholar of the Chinese classics who was active from the latter half of the Edo Period to the Meiji Era. He was born in the scholar family that served the Wakayama Domain. He was promoted by the Tokugawa Government to give lectures to the then shogun, but was forced to retire because of a political change and moved to Shimousa Province. He then drifted around Hitachi and Shimousa Provinces until the beginning of the Meiji Era, when he started his writing activities in Tokyo and Kyoto.

The digitization of rare materials released this time was conducted under the “Project to Build an International Collaborative Research Network for Pre-modern Japanese Texts” by the National Institute of Japanese Literature in which Kyoto University Library participates.