Japanese Studies CourseWorks Guide : Literary Studies: Find Books
General guide for locating resources for Japanese Studies.
Getting Japanese Books
To obtain a copy of a book you have located in the catalogs/databases described in the column "Books," try the following steps:
- Go to CLIO (Columbia Library Information Online) to see if it is available in one of the Columbia libraries.
- If a book is not at Columbia or the Columbia copy is checked out, try Borrow Direct.
- If the Borrow Direct libraries do not have an available copy, try ILL to request a copy.
Note: Columbia is a member of GIF (Global ILL Framework), which allows us to borrow books and get copies of articles from GIF member libraries in Japan.
Books
To find what books have been published in a year:
- CLIO : library web : Columbia University Libraries online catalog. This link opens in a new window
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Contains catalog records for books, serials, newspapers, music scores, sound recordings, microforms, maps, computer files, archives and manuscripts, videorecordings, and other visual materials added to the Columbia University Libraries since 1981, including some material acquired before that date. Also contains records for the U.S. Government Documents collection in Lehman Library.
Columbia's online public catalog was transformed to a discover tool and contains records for almost all materials, including books, periodicals, microforms, and databases, and beyond. Most of Japanese language materials are cataloged both in Japanese language as well as translitelation of Japanese in romanization in the modified Hepburn System employed by the Library of Congress. It is more effective to search by romanization rather than Japanese, but pay attention to word divisions. CLIO search tips, please click here.
- WorldCat. This link opens in a new window
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Contains over 48 million records, covering all materials cataloged by OCLC member libraries around the world.
- CiNii BooksA new version of Webcat -- a service for searching for information on books and journals held in libraries of universities and research institutions in Japan. Searchable for about 10 million titles held in 1200 university libraries (totaled over 100 million books), and about 1.5 million authors of these books that has been accumulated through the online cataloging system (NACSIS-CAT) which NII provides.
This database uses an “associative search function” that uses keywords to extract other words from the bibliographic records from the Edo period to the present that have a high association with them.
- National Diet Library (NDL 国立国会図書館）OPACSearch materials (books, journal articles, "Standards & Technical Reports, Materials on the Allied Occupation of Japan), held by the National Diet Library.
- NDL Search （国立国会図書館サーチ）“NDL Search” is a new search service of NDL from 2012 for multi-types of materials, not only books and journal articles but also digital materials, from in public libraries, archives, museums, institutes of academic research and NDL in Japan. Please note: Columbia does not participate in ILL for books with NDL. NDL will, however, provide photocopied articles to Columbia.
- NDL Electronic Library (国立国会図書館デジタル化資料）Service for searching and displaying various digitized library materials collected and accumulated in the National Diet Library including Kindai Digital Library (books), antiquarian/rare books, journals, newspapers, dissertations, historical sound sources, official gazette (官報), modern Japanese political history materials (憲政資料), etc.
- Waseda University Scholarly Information Network System (WINE)WINE is the Waseda University Library online catalog. Although it contains 2.9 million records, WINE does not reflect the library's complete holdings. This catalog is useful for finding Japanese name readings.
- Books.or.jp(本を探す） (Search Engine for Japanese Books)Online "Japanese Books in Print" contains Japanese books currently available from commercial publishers and is maintained by the Japan Book Publishers Association
E-Books
- Maruzen eBook Library (MeL) This link opens in a new window
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Collection of digitized Japanese academic or scholarly books selected from MEL (Maruzen e-Books Library).
- In Japan Knowledge Lib （ジャパンナレッジLib)Gunsh Ruiju, Zoku Gunsho Ruiju, Zokuzoku Gunsho Ruiji (群書類聚・続群書類聚・続々群書類聚)
Shinpen Nihon koten bungaku zeshū (新編日本古典文学全集)
Tōyō bunko (東洋文庫）
Bunko Kuseju[Que sais-je] besuto serekushon (文庫クセジュベストセレクション） - BlueSky Collection (青空文庫）A collection of non-copyright-protected Japanese literary works, available for download in several file formats.
- Japanese Text Initiative (Universities of Virginia/Pittsburgh)This website contains full-text versions of several works of classical Japanese literature, including the Manyoshu, Genji Monogatari, etc.
Institutional Repositories
- JAIRO (Japanese Institutional Repositories Online)JAIRO is the cross-sectionally search service for academic information (journal articles, theses or dissertations, departmental bulletin papers, research papers, etc.) which has been accumulated in Japanese institutional repositories.
Indexes to Works in Collections and Series
- Zenshū, sōsho sōmokuroku (全集・叢書 総目録）.
Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa senzenki
45/90
91/98
1999-2004
2005-2010 - zenshū kōza naiyō sōran （全集講座内容綜覧）
Jinbun hen (人文編）
Shakai hen (社会編）
1995-1999
2000-2004 - Kojin chosakushū naiyō sōran (個人 著作集 内容 綜覧)
- Kojin zenshū naiyō sōran (個人全集内容綜覧）
Dai II-ki (第II期） - Zenshū kojin zenshū naiyō sōran (全集 個人 全集・內容 綜覧)
Dai III-ki (第 III期)
Dai IV-ki (第ＩＶ期）
Dai V-ki (第Ｖ期） - Kojin zenshū sakuhinmei sōran (個人 全集・作品名 綜覧)
Dai II-ki ((第II期） - Zenshū kojin zenshū sakuhinmei sōran (全集, 個人 全集・作品名 綜覧)
- Dai III-ki ((第 III期
- Dai IV-ki (第 IV期)
- Dai V-ki (第V期)
Early Japanese Books (古典籍)
- Kokusho Sōmokuroku (国書総目録）
Union catalog of books worked by Japanese and published by Keio 3 [1867] - Kokusho kaidai. Zōtei kaihan. (国書解題. 増訂改版）
- Zenshū sōsho saimoku sōran. Koten hen. (全集叢書細目総覧. 古典：)
- Nihon Kotenseki Sōgō Mokuroku (日本古典籍総合目録)A database of pre-Meiji materials maintained by the National Institute of Japanese Literature (Kokubungaku Kenkyu Shiryōkan). This database, “New KOKUSHO SO MOKUROKU” is a union catalogue of early Japanese books. (It also includes Chinese classics and books of the Meiji period). It provides authoritative information about Japanese classical literary works and their authors. It also provide bibliographic information on early Japanese books, and their holding libraries.
Kokubungaku kenkyū shomoku kaidai (国文学硏究書目解題)
Provides explanation to 2,400 works on Japanese literature which were published after Meiji. Explanations are objective, yet describe concrete characteristics of each work, and tried to provide complete bibliographic information. With title index.
Kotenseki Databases
Translations
- Premodern Japanese Texts and TranslationsEdited and individually maintained by Michael Watson, Faculty of International Studies, Meiji Gakuin University, this website contains an exhaustive list of classical Japanese texts, along with related translations (mostly English, some French and German) and studies on the texts.
- Japanese Literature in Translation Search (日本文学翻訳書誌検 索)The database is compiled by the Japan Foundation in collaboration with the Japan P.E.N. Club for Japanese literature, mainly works after the World War II, which are translated into other languages. Search can be made in Japanese or its Romanization.