Kamakura Ibun

Kamakura Ibun (Collection of Historical Materials of the Kamakura Period) comprises 42 volumes with 4 ones of supplementary materials published by Takeuchi Rizo (1907-1997, former head of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Honorary Doctor of Waseda University) over a period of 24 years from 1971(Showa 46). Thus, it is a complete collection of all roughly 36,000 antique texts from the Kamakura period.

In 2006, the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo produced and published a Full Text Database of Kamakura Ibun based on the above-mentioned Kamakura Ibun, and this led to the publication of a “CD-ROM Version of Kamakura Ibun” by Tokyodo Shuppan Co., Ltd in 2008. The “Web Version of Kamakura Ibun” now being made available from JapanKnowledge contains not only all the volumes of Kamakura Ibun, but also a database that includes new research achievements, not contained in the CD-ROM version, such as the Kamakura Ibun Supplementary Materials Edition of the Toji Temple Documents (3 volumes) edited by the Kamakura Ibun Research Group, and the “Revised ‘Shirakawa Volume of the Toji Temple Documents’ included in the ‘Kamakura Ibun’” (Kamakura Ibun Research, issues 1 to 10, edited by the Kamakura Ibun Research Group) produced by the Medieval History Seminar of the Graduate School of Waseda University.

The most important feature of this web version is that a type-page of the book can be browsed on the same screen as a keyword search. Illustrations and genealogical charts are also displayed, this being impossible with the CD-ROM version. A link function to the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo “Union Catalog Database of Japanese Historical Documents” has also been provided, making it possible to access various kinds of information through the use of this Web Version of the Kamakura Ibun.

Production cooperation: Kadokawa Culture Promotion Foundation, Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, Kamakura Ibun Research Group