i.  Introductory Remarks
    ii. Okotowari
    iii. Symbols
    iv. Contributors
 

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

These materials have been prepared by five successive classes of the introductory seminar on Japanese bibliography that I have taught at Columbia University, in the semesters of Spring 1990, Autumn 1992, Autumn 1994, Autumn 1997, and Autumn 2000--known informally as Bib90, Bib92, Bib94, Bib97, and Bib2000. This course was taught for many years by Herschel Webb, whose approach is faithfully reflected in his book, Research in Japanese Sources: A Guide (Columbia University Press 1965, and re-issued in 1995 by the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies). He continued to teach the course regularly thereafter, in the same essential mold, until his death in late 1982. The course was continued thereafter--always in the spring semester--by Amy Heinrich in 1983, Jacqueline Mueller in 1984, and Dick Rubinger in 1985. After this, the course was increasingly neglected, and in the period 1986-89 was taught only once, by John Morris in 1988.

Since reviving the course in 1990, all of us in the seminar have depended on the continuing support and expertise of the staff of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library. Amy Heinrich, director of the Starr Library, who originally took the course under Herschel Webb and later taught it herself, has been a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. Bib90 owed much to the help of Kenji Niki, and since 1992 all of us are greatly indebted to the continuing assistance of Mrs. Yasuko Makino. As co-author of the basic introduction to Japanese bibliography that has become the standard text for the course (Yasuko Makino & Masaei Saito, A Student Guide to Japanese Sources in the Humanities, Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1994; see ch. 1), Mrs. Makino is herself a leading expert on bibliography, and has worked closely with Bib92 and Bib94.

The basic framework of the course has followed that established by Hershel Webb, eliminating the sections on historiography that came at the end of his course (and book) and adding more on modern history and the social sciences. The bible for Bib90 was A Guide to Reference Books for Japanese Studies, which had been published just half a year earlier by The International House of Japan. About four weeks into the course, Giles Richter was stricken by the parallel with another well-known International House, and our bible became known affectionately as "Pancake"; it appears less colorfully in the reports that follow as "IHJ." We also relied on a crucial earlier work edited by Naomi Fukuda,Bibliography of Reference Works for Japanese Studies (University of Michigan, 1979).

I owe a special word of thanks to David Lurie, a member of Bib94, for his help in the summer of 1995 in pulling together and imposing some sort of order on a diverse assortment of materials.  Since that time, partial revisions and additions have been made, but not overall revision has been possible, so that many of the materials are now out of date.  Hopefully it will be possible to engage in a similar overall revision of the materials in the near future, but for the moment the guide mostly reflects revisions made in 1995.  Reports on special topics by the members of Bib2000, with an emphasis on Web resources, may be found in a separate section on Bib2000 Projects.

Henry Smith
December 2000

OKOTOWARI

These materials are intended basically as a guide to the Japanese bibliography and reference materials in the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, to which all call numbers refer.

These materials were prepared by a variety of people over a period of time, so no guarantees are made as to their accuracy or currency. Efforts have been made to unify the format throughout, but many small slips and errors remain. This effort is intended simply as a rough working guide to reference and research materials in the Starr Library, not as a polished manual.

These materials have been prepared for private circulation among the members of the class and those who assisted them in the Starr East Asian Library. Please do not reproduce or circulate any of these materials without the consent of the authors.

SYMBOLS

Some (but not all) of the chapters in this volume have used the following symbols to give a rough indication of the relative importance and cost of various reference books:

*** Essential reference work
** Basic reference work
* Important reference work.
¢ Recommended for purchase
$ Expensive, but worth buying if you can afford it.

CONTRIBUTORS

Listed below are listed the successive members of the Japanese Bibliography class who have created these materials. In certain chapters (notably for the reports on English-language journals in ch. 3), initials were used to indicate authorship of specific sections.

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