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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 working day. (In the case of rare books and semi-rare books, you need to submit an application at least one week in advance. Please see the next section, "To use rare books and semi-rare books."
Advance reservation is required to use the originals on Saturdays. (Advance reservation is not necessary to use microforms and digitized materials)

User Registration is required to use materials (originals, microfilmed materials and DVDs).

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

You need to submit an application at least one week in advance. 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: 03-3506-5293 ext. 27523

The material(s) requested will be available from about one week after the day the application has been accepted.
In addition, depending on the condition of the material and the use situation of the library room, we may not be able to comply with your request.

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General description of the collections

The Rare Books and Old Materials Room possesses about 280,000 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, including a rich collection of materials from the early modern period. Materials with call numbers listed below are available in the room.

Japanese and Chinese books

Japanese and Chinese books
Call number Example Description Advance application
WA <WA7-2> Rare books Required
WB <WB5-3> Semi-rare books Required
貴、貴箱 <貴2-17> Equivalent to rare books and semi-rare books Required
本別、寄別 <(本)別20-1> 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  
十二支 <卯-8> Japanese and Chinese old books arranged using the letters of the Oriental Zodiac (子～亥)  
いろは <は-21> Japanese and Chinese old books arranged using the letters い～ん(hiragana)  
京・京乙 <京-55> Novels, plays, illustrated books and others of the Edo Period  
詩文 <詩文-722> Gakken Collection: anthology of Chinese poetry and writings mainly by Japanese authors from the books previously owned by Dohi Keizo  
特1 <特1-203> Shirai Collection: materials on herbalism collected by Shirai Mitsutaro  
特2 <特2-1369> Shinjo Collection: materials on astronomy and the calendar previously owned by Shinjo Shinzo  
特7 <特7-124> Ito Collection: materials on herbalism collected by Ito Keisuke and inherited by his grandson Tokutaro  
特1000～1004 <特1002-2> Books acquired by the Kameda Kokichi Fund  
わ+NDC6版 <わ210.5-2> Japanese and Chinese old materials acquired between April 1949 and March 1961  
<ち13-1> Old maps acquired between April 1949 and March 1961  
NDC6版 <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> Western-bound manuscripts and books in author's own handwriting  

Western books

Western books
Call number Example Description Advance application
WA <WA41-2> Rare books Required
WB <WB41-6> Semi-rare books Required
<貴-6437> Equivalent to rare books and semi-rare books Required
<別-31> Equivalent to rare books and semi-rare books Required
<蘭-1450> Western (Dutch) books previously owned by the government of Edo  
特4-1～47 <特4-31> 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

Newspapers and magazines
Call number Example Description Advance application
WB42 <WB42-15> magazines Required
WB43 <WB43-150> newspapers Required

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