Rare Books and Old Materials Room
Advance reservation / Advance application to use rare books and semi-rare books
Advance reservation
Materials held in the room can be reserved in advance for your use except for rare books and semi-rare books. Please make a written reservation not later than noon on the previous day. (In the case of rare books and semi-rare books, the library will designate a date and a time in response to your application.) For Saturdays, reservations are always necessary except for the use of microforms and digitized materials.
Reservation forms are available here. Please fill in the following information: date preferred, title(s) of material(s), call number(s), research objectives, address, name and telephone number.
Send/fax the form to: Rare Books and Old Materials Room, National Diet Library, 1-10-1
Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8924, JAPAN
FAX: 03-3504-1529
To use rare books and semi-rare books
Advance application is required. To use materials which have “Required” in the “Advance application” column on the list of the collections below, please contact us in advance. We will send you an application form.
Contact phone number: 03-3581-2331 ext. 27523
The material(s) requested will be available from about two weeks after the day of application.
General description of the collections
The Rare Books and Old Materials Room possesses about 300,000 books including rare books and semi-rare books, and its collections mainly consist of Japanese old books up to the Edo Period and Chinese old books up to the Qing Dynasty. One of the room's features is the variety of its holdings and among others, it has a rich collection of materials of the early modern period. Materials with call numbers listed below are available in the room.
Japanese and Chinese books
| Call number | Example | Description | Advance application |
|---|---|---|---|
WA |
<WA7-2> |
Rare books |
Required |
WB |
<WB5-3> |
Semi-rare books |
Required |
 |
 |
Equivalent to rare books and semi-rare books |
Required |
 |
 |
Equivalent to rare books and semi-rare books |
Required |
100～249 |
<207-764> |
Manuscripts and printed books of the Edo Period and Chinese old books of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and others |
|
800～899 |
<806-19> |
Documents taken over from the government of Edo, Komiyama Library, Kabutoyama Collection and others |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Novels, plays, illustrated books and others of the Edo Period |
|
 |
 |
Gakken Collection: anthology of Chinese poetry and writings mainly by Japanese authors from the books previously owned by Dohi Keizo |
|
 |
 |
Shirai Collection: materials on herbalism collected by Shirai Mitsutaro |
|
|
 |
Shinjo Collection: materials on astronomy and the calendar previously owned by Shinjo Shinzo |
|
|
 |
Ito Collection: materials on herbalism collected by Ito Keisuke and inherited by his grandson Tokutaro |
|
 |
 |
Books acquired by the Kameda Kokichi Fund |
|
 |
 |
Japanese and Chinese old materials acquired between April 1949 and March 1961 |
|
 |
 |
Old maps acquired between April 1949 and March 1961 |
|
 |
<082.1-Sy996> |
Japanese and Chinese old materials and others acquired between 1948 and 1968 |
|
VF6 |
<VF6-K2-75> |
Japanese and Chinese old materials in the Hotta Ryohei Collection |
|
VF7 |
<VF7-N1> |
Japanese and Chinese old materials in the Watanabe Toshio Collection |
|
W |
<W89-50> |
Japanese and Chinese old materials and others acquired in and after 1969 |
|
YR |
<YR12-132> |
Scrolls, sheets, folded books and pocket editions up to the Edo Period or Qing Dynasty acquired in and after 1969 |
|
YS |
<YS1-5> |
Manuscripts and books in author’s own handwriting |
|
Western books
| Call number | Example | Description | Advance application |
|---|---|---|---|
WA |
<WA41-2> |
Rare books |
Required |
WB |
<WB41-6> |
Semi-rare books |
Required |
 |
 |
Equivalent to rare books and semi-rare books |
Required |
 |
 |
Equivalent to rare books and semi-rare books |
Required |
 |
 |
Western (Dutch) books previously owned by the government of Edo |
|
 |
 |
Books previously owned by Ogawa Takuji |
Required |
VF3 |
<VF3-159> |
Pamphlets related to political movements in France in the 17th century |
|
WF |
<WF3-2> |
Western books published before 1831 |
|
Newspapers and magazines
| Call number | Example | Description | Advance application |
|---|---|---|---|
WB42 |
<WB42-15> |
magazines |
Required |
WB43 |
<WB43-150> |
newspapers |
Required |