Institutional libraries in Japan’s Classic Court Age (Heian Period, 794–1185)

Abstract

This paper treats three types of institutional libraries in classical Japan: royal libraries, libraries of private court academies, and monastic libraries. Two issues are explored: (1) whether we can speak of ‘institutional’ libraries or whether all libraries were in essence private libraries; and (2) which works were collected in libraries and which works do not surface in library records.