No. 112, December 1999

New Publication from NDL

"The National Diet Library Inventory
of Photographic Collections 1926-1945"

Index to Japanese old photographs

This catalog provides a list of contents identifying each picture in collections of photographs published before World War II.

In recent years, many photographic collections have been published, which reproduce prewar photographs, and consequently, it is getting easier to find pictures of those days. However, still many valuable pictures remain inaccessible to the public.

This catalog, a continuation of the National Diet Library Inventory of Photographic Albums 1868-1926 (Reference Service and Bibliography, No. 33, 1987), covers photographic collections published from 1926 to 1945, and those from 1912 to 1926 that were not carried in the last inventory. Since this continuation is too large to appear in the periodical above, we published it in book form to make it easier to use as a catalog. We hope this inventory together with its predecessor will be helpful in discovering valuable pictures, and furthermore, finding out materials that show the social conditions and the tendency of the times the albums were published.

1. Scope
This catalog covers approximately 900 Japanese books mainly containing pictures, in general, among the holdings of the National Diet Library published between 1926-1945, together with those published between 1912-1926 that did not appear in the National Diet Library Inventory of Photographic Albums 1868-1926 (Reference Service and Bibliography, No. 33, 1987).

2. Arrangement
The catalog is divided into two parts: regions and subjects, each of them subdivided under sections. Within a section, the arrangement is in Japanese syllabary order of titles, except for some sections in chronological order.

Sample page

3. Contents of Entries
(1) Within each entry is title, author (editor, author and photographer), place of publication (this is omitted in case of Tokyo or publications of government agencies), number of pages, size of book (cm, length by width in case of oblongs), price and National Diet Library call number in the order named.
(2) The contents note on each picture is derived from the table of contents. When the table is too long or there is no table, a description of the material is given in square brackets. Correction is made only when there are obvious mistakes in the table.

4. Index
Title index is at the end of the catalog in Japanese syllabary sequence, indicating a consecutive number of the material

5. User’s Guide
In this catalog, it is the books themselves which are classified, not each picture in the books, therefore please also refer to other related sections.

Sample page

Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan Shojo shasincho shasinshu naiyo saimoku soran -showa zenkihen- (The National Diet Library Inventory of Photographic Collections 1926-1945)
Compiled by the Special Materials Department, National Diet Library
606 P., ISBN: 4-87582-549-8
Published by the National Diet Library, Distributed by Kinokuniya Co.,Ltd.
9,500 yen (domestic price)

Available from

Kinokuniya Company Ltd.
International Business Division
address: 38-1 Sakuragaoka 5-chome,
Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8691, Japan
Tel:+81-3-3439-0162
Fax:+81-3-3439-0136
E-mail: kj00@kinokuniya.co.jp