About Momijiyama-Bunko

It is said that in 1602, the year before he established the Edo shogunate, Togugawa Ieyasa constructed a library called the Fujimi Pavillion within Edo Castle; this facility became the seed for the shogunal library. Ieyasu assembled the greatest collection of his age, borrowing or expropriating books from nobles, warriors, and temples, and incorporating the medieval Kanazawa Bunko collection. Bequeathing important books to the shogunate in his later years, he laid the intellectual building blocks for the early shogunate.

The shogunate’s library was moved in 1639 to the Momijiyama area of Edo Castle, and from that point until the end of the Edo period remained under the management of a shogunate-appointed staff of librarians, the Shomotsu Bugyō. This official Shogunate Library came in the Meiji period to be referred to as the “Momijiyama Bunko.”

Despite the occasional donation or transfer away, over the 266 years from its origins until the Meiji Restoration the library steadily grew, and by the end of the Edo period contained 5,789 titles in 114,095 volumes, centered on works copied or printed in Japan, China, and Korea. The collection of the Momijiyama Bunko underwent a dynamic process of steady transformation, but at the same time its contents were being put to use in the scholarship and governance of the shogunate.

But even more important than that history of use is the Momijiyama Bunko’s contribution to the preservation of East Asian culture through its precious ancient books, which transmit the knowledge and thought not just of ancient and medieval Japan, but indeed China and Korea as well.

Under the management of the Meiji government, the collection was transferred between several offices including the University, the Council of State, and the Historiographical Office, but apart from a few losses was largely maintained intact until its absorption in 1885 into the new Diet Library. However, six years later the most precious works in the Diet Library were transferred to the imperial house, and with this a large portion of the Momijiyama Bunko collection, particularly its rare Chinese holdings, were moved to the Imperial Household Ministry’s Imperial House Library. From this point the former Momijiyama Bunko collection was divided in two between the custodianship of the imperial house and the government, each treated as part of their respective collections. As a result, presently the former contents of the Momijiyama Bunko are held in the National Archives of Japan (which inherited the Cabinet Library) and Imperial House Library of the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department, and access to them is managed through these institutions.

In the first years of the new Meiji government, items from the Momijiyama Bunko collection were marked with seals reading “Book from the Hikaku Library” (“hikaku” being a term for the most important and secret archive in the palace) or “Momijiyama Book.” These seals remain a vitally important means of identifying works from the Momijiyama Bunko collection, but due to the lending of books between government offices, some inadvertently escaped being stamped. Furthermore, in a few instances seals continued to be added throughout the Meiji period.

More than a century has passed since the Momijiyama Bunko collection was split, and it has become increasingly difficulty to apprehend its original state. However, considering the cultural value the Momijiyama Bunko formerly embodied, it is necessary to employ our contemporary knowledge to reconstruct it in its totality and understand its meaning. This website is an attempt to face this issue by establishing two perspectives on the Momijiyama Bunko, using historical documentation and extant materials, and combining these perspectives to get a closer view. As a starting point for this endeavor, we aim for the reconstruction in a digital environment of the Momijiyama Bunko (defined in reference to the late-Edo period when its expansion ceased), beginning first with its most treasured contents, the personal donations of Tokugawa Ieyasu.（Translated by Brian Steininger）

（September 2023 Research Project for the Reconstruction of the Momijiyama-bunko Library）