University of Cambridge : Japanese Collection

About:

The East Asian Reading Room is part of the Aoi Pavilion, which is located on the first floor (South East corner) of the University Library main building. The Aoi Pavilion was opened in March 1998 and named in recognition of a generous donation from Mr Tadao Aoi. In addition to the East Asian Reading Room on the first floor, the Aoi Pavilion contains the Library's collections of Japanese, Chinese and Korean materials in two bookstacks on the Ground Floor (open access) and Basement (mostly open access).

Notable Collection(s):

This is one of the five major Japanese library collections in Britain. There are approximately 90,000 volumes of Japanese books, as well as a substantial number of bound periodicals and online resources, which covers most subjects in the field of the humanities and social sciences.

One of its great strengths is the extensive collection of early Japanese books (c. 10000 volumes) housed in the Aoi Pavillion. Most of the early books were collected by Ernest Satow (British diplomat and pioneer of Japanese studies) just after the Meiji Restoration. The books were eventuallly transferred to W.G. Aston and, after his death in 1911, Cambridge acquired the collection.

URL: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/deptserv/japanese/index.html

The digitisation project of the Japanese special collection has been made possible through a generous donation by Professor Mikiko Ishii of Kanagawa University (click here for more information).

The UL regulations and rules of conduct for readers apply at all times.

Closed stack books and rare materials can be requested in the Reading room by filling out a paper ticket. The fetching time is usually 30 minutes.

NB No fetching or transferring of items between 12.30 and 14.00 and after 17.00 (after 16.45 on Fridays). No fetching or transferring of items Saturdays. On Saturdays non-borrowable items can be consulted in the Rare Books Reading Room. Please contact the relevant departments to discuss your requirements.