From October 21st to 25th 2024, the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) held its first study tour in Japan. At the request of its organizer, the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, the Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture held a program to introduce the academic resources of our university.
On the day, 16 participants from art libraries and university libraries in the US and elsewhere visited our university, led by Tomoko Emura (an alumna of our university), Director of the Cultural Properties Information and Documentation Department at the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and two other researchers from the institute. They visited the Aizu Museum, the Central Library, and the Waseda International House of Literature (the Haruki Murakami Library).
The Aizu Museum
With the help of assistants and staff from each museum and library, as well as graduate students from the Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences, we explained the process of forming and utilizing the university’s art materials and library collection, one of the largest of its kind in Japan. The participants had a wide range of specialties, including art history, history, cultural history, and photography history, and were engaged in the daily collection, research, management, and dissemination of information, as well as inter-organizational collaboration, as librarians and researchers at art libraries. They showed a keen interest in the preservation and utilization of academic materials at Japanese universities, and asked a wide range of questions about how the cultural properties and rare books held by our university, including national treasures and important cultural properties, are used as research and educational resources, as well as about issues such as digitization methods and securing space for preserving materials.
On the first floor of the Aizu Museum, an explanation was given about the history of the building, which was designed by Kenji Imai and was formerly the library, and about the painting “Meian” by Taikan Yokoyama and Kanzan Shimomura
On the fourth floor of the Central Library, an explanation was given about the history of the Waseda University Library
On the fourth floor of the Central Library, a rare book viewing session was held
On the day of the event, the Aizu Museum held the exhibition “The Beauty of Harmony between East and West: The Roma Shisetsu (Envoy to Rome)”, the Central Library held the exhibition “‘Genji Asobi at the Edo Period: Woodblock Prints, Ko no zu, Sugoroku, Karuta”, and the Waseda International House of Literature held “Yoko Yamamoto Print Exhibition: Encountering World Literature From Capote to Murakami”, so it was fortunate that we were able to provide a full program, with time for visiting the exhibitions at each museum. Later, we received feedback from participants saying that it was an impressive experience to be able to see wonderful cultural assets and rare books on a campus bustling with students.
After the tour of the Waseda International House of Literature, lunch at the Cafe Orange Cat
（山本聡美 記）
*A study tour debriefing was held at the University of Illinois in March 2025.
https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_fbq6894t
Event Overview
- Date and time：October 25, 2024 10:00-12:00（JST）
- Format：Face to face（The Aizu Museum、The Central Library, The Waseda International House of Literature (the Haruki Murakami Library)）
- Organized by：Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS) (Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture)
- Co-organized by ：The Aizu Museum、the Central Library, the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties
