Literature - JAPANESE 8500 - Japanese Bibliography and Research Methods

Translated Literature

Japanese Literature in Translation Search (日本文学翻訳書誌検索)
This database covers Japanese literary works translated into other languages, mostly after World War II. Searches can be made either in Japanese character or Roman letters.
Premodern Japanese Texts and Translations
Bibliography of translations that covers texts written in Japan before the year 1600.
Reading Japanese Literature in English
Links to translated editions.
Japanese Literature in English
This is a searchable database that compiles all literary works translated from Japanese to English and that are available in the US.

Digital Library

Kindai Digital Library (NDL)
Provided by National Diet Library (国立国会図書館) - 明治以降に刊行された図書・雑誌のうち、インターネットで閲覧可能なデジタル化資料を公開しています。
Kyoto University Digital Library - Rare Materials Exhibition 京都大学電子図書館貴重資料画像
奈良女子大学 - 女性関連資料
Digitized books on women related topics from the 江戸 & 明治 period (Provided by 奈良女子大学学術情報センター)
Nichibunken 日文研
国際日本文化研究センター (Rsearch Center for Japanese Studies) - 日文研所蔵稀本・資料データベース
国文学研究資料館 National Institute of Japanese Literature
東京大学附属図書館 - Rare Books
東京大学附属図書館電子版貴重書コレクション Rare books digital library provided by University of Tokyo.
早稲田大学図書館 - 古典籍総合データベース Kotenseki Sogo Database
Japanese & Chinese Classic Database provided by 早稲田大学図書館 Waseda University Library
NDL Digital Collections
The database provides digital publications (books, periodicals, articles, etc.) NDL took out and archived from the websites of Japanese ministries and agencies. Major publications such as White Papers are accessible via this website (English version of the website is available)
Japanese Historical Text Initiative (JHTI), University of California at Berkeley
A rapidly expanding database made up of historical texts dating back more than 1200 years. The original version of every paragraph in every text is cross-tagged with its English translation, making it possible for any researcher to see, on the same screen, both the original and English translation of any word or phrase appearing in any JHTI text.

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The list of historic and literary texts on this database include the Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, Azuma Kagami, Taiheiki, and Kokutai no Hongi
日本古典文学本文データベース Nihon Koten Bungaku Honbun Database
Full-text database of the 日本文学大系 Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei. Originally published in 1957-1986 by 岩波書店 Iwanami Shoten, it consists of 560 pieces pre-modern Japanese literature. Any or all of the 102 volumes are searchable by keyword.
Narrative Book Collection
The Narrative Book Collection is a collection of approximately 150 pre-modern Japanese book titles with over 650 high-res digital images. Developed by Keio University's Graduate School of Media Design, the image library is designed to work in conjunction with their Culture Through Rare Books online course. However, the image are free to browse by any interested party.
Studies in Japanese Literature and Culture
新日本古典籍総合データベース: The data base to be constructed will include about 300 thousand of the 500 thousand items listed in the “Kokusho Somokuroku” (General Catalogue of Japanese Writings published by Iwanami Shoten) and has a system in which information on pre-modern books belonging to multiple institutions can be searched in one setting. It will be an unprecedented scale as a data base which includes images of pre-modern books.

Finding English Articles

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Index to journals, books, dictionaries, dissertations, and conference papers on literature, languages, folklore and linguistics. Includes critical writings on literature and human languages, including both naturallanguages and invented languages, e.g., Esperanto. Citations in a non-Roman alphabet are translated into the Roman alphabet.

Japanese Literature in Translation Search (日本文学翻訳書誌検索)
This database covers Japanese literary works translated into other languages, mostly after World War II. Searches can be made either in Japanese character or Roman letters.
Premodern Japanese Texts and Translations
Bibliography of translations that covers texts written in Japan before the year 1600.
Reading Japanese Literature in English
Links to translated editions.

Index to Japanese Language Articles

Kokubungaku Ronbun Mokuroku Db (NIJL)
Index to articles and books on Japanese literature and Language. Comprises the following publications: 『国文学研究文献目録』『国文学年鑑』（国文学研究資料館編）昭和４６年（１９７１）－現在 ; 『国語国文学研究文献目録』（東京大学国語国文学会編）昭和３８年（１９６３）－昭和４５（１９７０）; 『国文学研究文献目録』（国文学研究資料館編）昭和１６年（１９４１）－昭和３７年（１９６２）

Useful Websites

Aozora Bunko
青空文庫 -- Japanese literary works that are not protected by copyright. Available in several formats for download.
Wikipedia: Category: Japanese Literature
Links to articles in Wikipedia

Japanese Book Marketplace

Japanese Calendrical Systems

Two number systems for years are commonly used in Japan:

Gregorian Calendar - the western calendar year system commonly used in US. e.g. 2015
Nengō 年号 - calendar year system based on the reigns of emperors.e.g. Heisei 27 or 平成二十七年

Japanese year converter

Romanization Standards

The libraries follow the romanization standards used in the Library of Congress

ALA-LC Romanization Tables

Chinese - pinyin romanization system, however some older titles still has titles using the Wade-Giles romanization system.

Library of Congress Pinyin Conversion Project
How can I tell the difference between Wade-Giles and Pinyin

Japanese - Modified Hepburn romanization system

Korean - McCune-Reischauer system

Encyclopedias & General Resources

JACAR (Japan Center for Asian Historical Records)
National Archives of Japan. Site includes exhibits and searchable archives.

Japan Knowledge : Encyclopedias, Dictionaries and Databases [Full Text] This link opens in a new window
Consists of fully searchable and browsable databases including English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries, Encyclopedia Nipponica and Encyclopedia of Japan, articles published in a weekly magazine Ekonomisuto, collection of Toyo bunko series and other visual and sound databases.

Japanese Studies Commons
Open access resources on Japanese studies, including art / visual resources, articles, and e-books.
JapanGov (in English)
Provides collective information from the publicity materials of ministries and agencies. It also provides basic information about Japan.
JGuide (Stanford)
Guide to Japan information resources from Stanford University
Monash Nihongo ftp Archive
A repository of files and software related to Japan, its people and particularly the Japanese language.
NCC Guide
North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC).
NDL Digital Collections
The database provides digital publications (books, periodicals, articles, etc.) NDL took out and archived from the websites of Japanese ministries and agencies. Major publications such as White Papers are accessible via this website (English version of the website is available)
Portal to Asian Internet Resources
Research Navi
Research Navi is a platform for providing information to the general public. It introduces reference materials, websites, databases, information on related organizations, etc. in accordance with specific subjects or material groups.
Web Archiving Project (WARP）
Archives the whole websites of public organizations in Japan since 2002. Note: major publications such as White Papers and official bulletins of prefectures are archived in the NDL Digital Collections instead.