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Posted by: Cameron Penwell
This post explores topics in prewar Japanese periodicals in the Asian Division at the Library of Congress, focusing on titles that deal with the emerging film industry in Japan.
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia, Junior Fellows
Posted by: Cameron Penwell
The Ainu and Ezochi Rare Collection makes numerous rare Japanese books about the Ainu people and their traditional homeland freely available in digital format.
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
Posted by: Cameron Penwell
(The following is a post by Cameron Penwell, Japanese reference librarian, Asian Division.) In 1906, in the aftermath of its victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the imperial Japanese government set up the South Manchurian Railway Company (SMRC) to promote and manage Japanese interests on the Asian continent. It was incorporated with the legal designation …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
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, …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia, Junior Fellows
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 …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
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 …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
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 …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia