Tosho Bunko in Kita Ward, Tokyo, is the country's first library stocked exclusively with school textbooks. Founded in 1936 by Tokyo Shoseki Co., a major textbook publisher, the library houses about 160,000 textbooks and related items dating back to the Kamakura period (from the late 12th century to 1333). About 100 are exhibited at a time, and the displays are changed regularly.
Tokyo Shoseki was established in 1909 in Kanda, Tokyo, and the library was opened to commemorate its 25th anniversary. It directly faced the newly built company factory in the Oji district of Kita Ward, where the paper industry had been thriving. The first librarian of the facility used to pull a cart around and search through Tokyo's secondhand book shops, buying up old textbooks. The library opened when the number of the textbooks in the company's possession reached about 5,500. In 1938, the education ministry donated to the library about 47,000 authorized textbooks from the Meiji era (1868-1912) and other items. During an air raid in Tokyo in April 1945, company employees reportedly scrambled to battle the resulting fires in an effort to save the precious textbooks and source materials.
In the exhibition room, texts are arranged by period so that visitors can see how textbooks have changed over time. Among them are "Jozu Orai," a book of phrases and model sentences for writing letters presumably from the Muromachi period (1336-1573); a commentary book on the Analects of Confucius used at terakoya temple schools and hanko peers' schools during the Edo period (1603-1867); a lesson book for girls, also from the Edo period; and textbooks over a period of time from the Meiji era. Quite a few visitors have fond memories of textbooks they used during the war and the years immediately following.
Also on display are kakezu -- pictures and diagrams hung on walls -- that were used during the Meiji era before projectors were invented to help teach subjects such as electrolysis and human anatomy.
Since 2015 and with subsidies from the Cultural Affairs Agency and the Tokyo metropolitan government, Tosho Bunko has been restoring 287 items in its possession, some of which will take over 10 years.
Many of the items at the facility, including 76,420 designated by the government as important cultural properties, are available for viewing upon request.
"Holding in your hands a real textbook from 100 years ago can be a precious experience for anyone," said director Kiyotaka Kitazawa.
Digitization of textbooks is a hot topic of late. Old paper textbooks, however, might have the ability to imbue on readers lessons embedded with the thoughts and wishes of the writers, printers, and even the archivists who were involved in their making and preservation. Visitors to this library may find their impression of textbooks revitalized, even if the only memories brought forth are those of mighty historical figures like Oda Nobunaga and Ryunosuke Akutagawa covered in doodles.
Tosho Bunko: 48-23 Sakaecho, Kita Ward, Tokyo
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
