Top of page

Category: Asian Division

Large metal hollow globe on a metal frame with metal orbit trails surrounding it

Mapping Imperial Japanese History through the B-Collection

Posted by: Cameron Penwell

(The following is a post by Chelsea Hudson, Junior Fellow, Asian Division, Summer 2018.) The process of inventorying and cataloging the hundreds of thousands of items scattered across Library archives is in itself an exercise in reconstructing history. Each book or journal records the anonymous hands that have censored its text, drawn in its margins, …

Large metal hollow globe on a metal frame with metal orbit trails surrounding it

New Online: Database Expands Access to North Korean Serials

Posted by: Cameron Penwell

(This is a repost from the Library of Congress Blog. The authors are Sonya Lee, a Korean reference specialist in the Asian Division, and Cameron Penwell, a Japanese reference librarian. ) The Library’s Asian Division is home to one of the most prominent North Korean collections in the Western Hemisphere. While a growing number of scholars have …

Large metal hollow globe on a metal frame with metal orbit trails surrounding it

The Historian as Magpie: Searching for Treasures in the Asian Reading Room

Posted by: Cameron Penwell

(The following post is an interview conducted by Jonathan Loar and Cameron Penwell, reference specialists in the Asian Division, with Dr. Emer O’Dwyer, associate professor of History and East Asian Studies at Oberlin College). This year, the annual conference of the Association of Asian Studies (AAS) was held in Washington, D.C. from March 22-25. At …

Large metal hollow globe on a metal frame with metal orbit trails surrounding it

Minakata Kumagusu and the Tale of the Mountain God

Posted by: Cameron Penwell

(The following is a post by Cameron Penwell, Japanese Reference Librarian, Asian Division) On a shelf in the Japan rare book cage sits a small, unassuming wooden box next to a carefully preserved and tightly rolled scroll. Unfurled, the scroll reveals a hand-written Japanese text alongside fanciful images of anthropomorphic animals that together portray the …