Asian Research Library Series 6 Asia Kenkyu Toshokan Shozo Nara Tsuyoshi Bunko Mokuroku (Catalog of the Tsuyoshi Nara Collection (Nara Tsuyoshi Bunko) at the Asian Research Library)

I feel hesitant about introducing this work to UTokyo BiblioPlaza, a place devoted to “books written by UTokyo professors.” As the title clarifies, this volume is not a monograph but a catalog of a donated collection at the Asian Research Library of UTokyo, and my own role was limited to writing an eight-page introductory essay. However, if we take the meaning of “UTokyo BiblioPlaza” literally, as a plaza for UTokyo’s biblion, then this catalog emerges as a notably relevant subject. It embodies both the significance and challenges of building a bunko, a special collection that is an indispensable part of a university library.
 
Nara Tsuyoshi Bunko is one of the collections built at the Asian Research Library that opened in 2020. It consists of donated materials from the private library of the late Professor Nara Tsuyoshi, a distinguished scholar of linguistics, with a particular focus on South Asian languages. For the provenance and features of this bunko and for an overview of Professor Nara’s remarkably wide research and activities, please refer to my introduction to the catalog itself. Here, I briefly reflect on the significance and challenges of creating a bunko and compiling its catalog.
 
At the Asian Research Library, donated materials accounted for 23.6% of the entire collection as of autumn 2024, clearly illustrating their significance. In practice, acceptance of donated materials requires considerable time and effort. From 2014 to 2017, I served as the Deputy Project Leader of U-PARL (Uehiro Project for the Asian Research Library) —a research unit that supported the library's establishment and has been promoting library-based research. During this period, I was involved in the acquisition of several donated collections. Every case has proven to be an arduous undertaking (This Nara Tsuyoshi Bunko, too, was made possible through the dedicated efforts of numerous individuals both within and outside U-PARL—too many to list here—including Yasuhiro Tokuhara, then Project Assistant Professor and editor of this catalogue. Regarding their contributions, please refer to my introduction). Despite the numerous challenges, acceptance of donated materials has persisted. I believe this is not merely to preserve and utilize valuable resources but also because the very act of building a bunko collection holds deep significance.

Today, libraries rarely accept entire personal collections, and materials are carefully selected according to certain criteria. Nonetheless, a “collection” retains the research process and substance of its original owner. In an age when personal diaries or correspondence are rarely preserved and published, the significance of bunko collections and their catalogs seems to grow. Furthermore, Bunko collections are rarely shelved together in a single location nowadays. UTokyo’s Asian Research Library also shelves them separately according to content. Precisely because of this situation, catalogs with explanatory notes providing an overview of the entire collection hold great significance. You may wonder, ”Why a catalog when we have OPAC?” While OPAC is excellent for specific item searches, it is less suited for grasping the overall characteristics of a collection. Therefore, the catalog offers a unique and distinct perspective that cannot be simply replaced by its digital counterpart.
 
The acceptance of donated materials at the Asian Research Library has been largely taken over by RASARL (the Research Advancement Section for the Asian Research Library) since 2021. Catalogs for multiple collections, including Nara Tsuyoshi Bunko, have been published as the Asian Research Library Series, with the full text available at the University of Tokyo Academic Repository. In addition, several other collections, although not yet fully cataloged, contain numerous publicly accessible materials. Detailed information can be found on the U-PARL webpage and in the “Newsletter of the Asian Research Library of the University of Tokyo.” I hope and believe that, especially in this digital age, exploring bunko collections and their catalogs will lead to new discoveries.
 

(Written by TOMIZAWA Kana, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2025)