GREETING
Kyoto University of Foreign Studies gave the first cry of a newborn educational corporation 60 years ago, and the 18th of May in 2007 falls on the 60th anniversary of its birth.
The Library of both the University and Kyoto Junior College of Foreign Languages (henceforth, the Library for short) has been growing up to have a library of around 500,000 volumes
aside from more than 4,500 kinds of academic magazines. This fact shows that the Library stands comparison with the other Japanese universities and / or colleges of the same size in terms of the quality and quantity of its possessions.
The most extinguished feature of the Library’s volumes is to be capable of offering not only the materials of the world’s liberal arts and social science revolving around linguistic / philological studies but foreign studies and international area studies on the basis of the foundation motto ‘Pax Mundi per Linguas’ (i.e.,‘World Peace through Languages’).
Another extinguished feature of the Library is that in these numerous volumes of books and magazines is included a special collection of 27 filed-materials such as Japan's External Negotiation Materials, NIPPONALIA (i.e., materials on Japanese study written in Western Languages) and the like, most of which are historical rare materials. This invaluable possession owes wholly to the present Chancellor and Director of the board of the University, Mr. Yoshikazu MORITA, who, as the 3rd Director of the Library (1968-1980) directed his staff to collect these historically valuable materials, thinking that they would
inevitably make
a great contribution to the progress of the academic researches of history in the future both inside and outside Japan.
The theme of this exhibition is closely linked with the materials above, and the exhibition is titled CREPE-PAPER BOOKS and WOODBLOCK PRINTS AT THE DAWN OF CULTURAL ENLIGHTENMENT IN JAPAN, both of which are highly artistic in evaluation. The exhibits prepared this time are some carefully-selected representatives of the prices the library possesses. The Crepe-paper books are the ones of colored Crepe-paper in the Japanese-style bind, which were used as a favorite mediums of transmitting the popular Japanese traditional literary and / or cultural works translated (and sometimes, complete creations influenced by things Japanese) in Western languages, mainly in English, by the foreigners who settled in Japan in the Meiji era. The Crepe-paper books are usually accompanied with colored illustrations given by the Japanese artists. It is recorded that they were exported and met a favorable reception abroad. Woodblock prints were the socalled ‘ukiyoe’, where the foreigners who began to come over to Japan at the end of the Edo era, and the cultural things and products introduced from abroad were illustrated by the Japanese professionals in the traditional style originating from the Edo era.
It can safely be said that the two kinds of collections mentioned above evidently reflect ‘Japan’s eagerness for the both adoption of foreign culture and dispatch Japanese culture abroad’ , which would serve to modernize Japan. In other words, they served as the basis of ‘Japan’s External Negotiation’ and ‘Japan’s eagerness for international cultural exchange’. Besides, these collections can prove that the illustrators of that time are highly esteemed in terms of their artistic skill and sense of color in art history.
You are cordially invited not only to the exhibition (5.21-28, 2007) for the celebration of the 60th Foundation Day but to the Library any time, and I would be very pleased if you are satisfied with the collections. |