Tourist Library
A series of short English books on Japanese culture, written by Japanese scholars and specialists and published by the Japanese government's Board of Tourist Industry from 1934 to 1942. The Japan Travel Bureau continued it after the war.
Read online here: 23 · Kabuki Drama (Syūtarō Miyake, 1938) · 33 · Japanese Proverbs (Otoo Huzii, 1940). More are coming as we scan them.
Why the books were made
The Board of Tourist Industry (国際観光局) was set up in 1930, as a bureau of the Ministry of Railways, to bring visitors from abroad to Japan. In its history of its first ten years, the Board explained the series: overseas publicity that said only Japan Calls You or Visit Japan would smack too strongly of publicity, and to make people truly want to come, they had to be brought to understand and take an interest in Japan's culture and ways. So in the spring of 1934 it began the Tourist Library.1
Each book ran to 70 to 100 pages with 30 to 40 photographic plates, and was sold at cost. The Board's editorial note gives the aim: to provide foreign tourists "with accurate information regarding the various phases of Japan's culture," in a series that would, when completed, "consist of more than a hundred volumes."2 By 1940 at least one volume had gone to three printings, forty thousand copies in all.1
The Board was abolished in 1942, and the series stopped at its fortieth volume.3 After the war the Japan Travel Bureau (日本交通公社) began a new Tourist Library, numbered again from 1, with a few pre-war volumes revised and enlarged and many new ones.4
The volumes
The forty pre-war volumes in series order, with titles and authors as the books print them. The year is the earliest edition the National Diet Library holds. A linked title can be read here now. We add the others as we scan our own copies, and we are still looking for the five marked.
| No. | Title | Author | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tea Cult of Japan | Y. Hukukita | 1934 |
| 2 | Japanese Noh Plays | T. Nogami | 1934 |
| 3 | Sakura (Japanese Cherry) | M. Miyosi | 1934 |
| 4 | Japanese Gardens | M. Tatui | 1934 |
| 5 | Hirosige and Japanese Landscapes | Yone Noguti | 1936 |
| 6 | Japanese Drama | Board of Tourist Industry | 1935 |
| 7 | Japanese Architecture | H. Kisida | 1935 |
| 8 | What is Sinto? | G. Katō | 1935 |
| 9 | Castles in Japan | S. Ōrui and Masao Toba | 1935 |
| 10 | Hot Springs in Japan | K. Huzinami | 1936 |
| 11 | Floral Art of Japan | Issōtei Nisikawa | 1936 |
| 12 | Children's Days in Japan | T. Iwadō | 1936 |
| 13 | Kimono (Japanese Dress) | Ken-iti Kawakatu | 1936 |
| 14 | Japanese Food | Kaneko Tezuka | 1936 |
| 15 | Japanese Music | Katumi Sunaga | 1936 |
| 16 | Zyudo (Zyuzyutu) | Zigorō Kanō | 1937 |
| 17 | Family Life in Japan | Syunkiti Akimoto | 1937 |
| 18 | Scenery of Japan | T. Tamura | 1936 |
| 19 | Japanese Education | K. Yosida and T. Kaigo | 1937 |
| 20 | Floral Calendar of Japan | T. Makino and Genzirō Oka | 1938 |
| 21 | Japanese Buddhism | D. T. Suzuki | 1938 |
| 22 | Odori (Japanese Dance) | Kasyō Matida | 1938 |
| 23 | Kabuki Drama | Syūtarō Miyake | 1938 |
| 24 | Japanese Wood-block Prints | S. Huzikake | 1938 |
| 25 | History of Japan | K. Nakamura | 1939 |
| 26 | Japanese Folk-toys | Tekiho Nisizawa | 1939 |
| 27 | Japanese Game of "Go" | Hukumensi Mihori | 1939 |
| 28 | Japanese Coiffure | R. Saitō | 1939 |
| 29 | Japanese Sculpture | Seiroku Noma | 1939 |
| 30 | Japanese Postage Stamps looking for a copy | Yokiti Yamamoto | 1940 |
| 31 | Japan's Ancient Armour | Hatirō Yamagami | 1940 |
| 32 | Angling in Japan | Meizi Matuzaki | 1940 |
| 33 | Japanese Proverbs | Otoo Huzii | 1940 |
| 34 | Sumo (Japanese Wrestling) looking for a copy | Kōzō Hikoyama | 1940 |
| 35 | Japanese Birds | Prince Nobusuke Takatsukasa | 1941 |
| 36 | Ainu Life and Legends | Kyōsuke Kindaiti | 1941 |
| 37 | Japanese Family Crests looking for a copy | Yuzuru Okada | 1941 |
| 38 | Japanese Industrial Arts | Seiiti Okuda | 1941 |
| 39 | Hand-made Paper of Japan looking for a copy | Bunshō Jugaku | 1942 |
| 40 | Japanese National Character looking for a copy | Nyozekan Hasegawa | 1942 |
How we host them
Our posture for every book in the library is set out once, on Library Sources. Each volume's footing:
- 33 · Japanese Proverbs: in the public domain in Japan and the United States. Otoo Huzii died in 1945.
- 23 · Kabuki Drama: hosted in good faith, as Library Sources sets out.
Sources
- Board of Tourist Industry, 『観光事業十年の回顧』 (1940), p. 107. National Diet Library Digital Collections.
- Editorial Note, in Otoo Huzii, Japanese Proverbs (Tourist Library 33, 1940).
- 光島有里「今月の一冊」, 国立国会図書館月報 754 (February 2024), p. 3.
- Rokuo Okada, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases (Japan Travel Bureau, Tourist Library, 2nd ed., 1958), Editorial Note and the series list.