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The Other Face of the Keio University Library ~ The Origins of the Mita Media Center Exhibition Room

Update:Feb. 16, 2015

Have you ever visited the Exhibition Room on the 1st floor of the Mita Media Center?
Since the opening of the library (now the Old University Library) 102 years ago, the regular exhibitions centered on Keio's valuable books have been opening new doors to intellectual interests.

The Man Who Began Running Exhibitions Inside the Library: Keio's First Library Director, Kazusada Tanaka

The Mita Media Center, which follows in the history of the Keio University Library (first established in 1912), boasts a collection of about 2,800,000 volumes. Within this collection, there are numerous private and special collections. Piquing the interest of visitors and raising the general level of knowledge through exhibiting these valuable books is an important objective of the main library of Keio.

The origins of the Keio library can be traced back to a bookshelf in the corner of a classroom when Keio was still based in the Shiba Shinsenza area before Keio moved to Mita. However, once the red brick Old Library building that we know today was completed in 1912, library activities began in earnest.

Kazusada Tanaka (1872-1921)
Kazusada Tanaka (1872-1921)
(Mita Media Center collection)
The special reference room during the Taisho era (1912-1926) (Mita Media Center collection)
The special reference room during the Taisho era (1912-1926) (Mita Media Center collection)
The Keio University 75th Anniversary Exhibition in May 1932. (Mita Media Center Collection)
The Keio University 75th Anniversary Exhibition in May 1932. (Mita Media Center Collection)

The first director of this graceful, neo-Gothic style library was a man called Kazusada Tanaka. After graduating from the Keio University's Department of Literature, Tanaka was dispatched to study sociology at Yale University. Then he undertook research in France at the Collège de France before returning to Japan and taking up a post as Keio's first faculty member in charge of sociology. It was he who began the exhibitions in the library. On the occasion of the library's opening ceremony, items were displayed in the "special reference room," including mementos of Yukichi Fukuzawa, ancient documents and books related to the importing of Western culture around the time of the Meiji Restoration. Tanaka, who was the head of the library project since 1905—seven years prior to the opening—was aware from a very early stage of the significance of holding a book exhibition.
 

Two years after the opening, in 1914, according to Tanaka's proposal, the library began holding a week-long exhibition every month with the objective to give students "the opportunity to get up close to the reference books in the collection." This was probably due to his observation trip to Europe and America along with then-President Eikichi Kamata where he saw open-stack libraries with students freely familiarizing themselves with books. He was a supporter of this, in a time when closed-stack libraries were the norm.

 
Before long, this monthly book exhibition turned into one library exhibition each term, and by February 1922 there had been a total of 33 held. The themes were varied and ranged from cities, finance and currency, English literature, and social issues. From the fifth exhibition, a lecture by a specialist in the field was held to coincide with it, making the event even more meaningful.

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To Date Over 300 Exhibitions Carefully Planned and Carried Out by the Keio Library

The interior of the current-day Exhibition Room (Photo by Satoru Inoue)
The interior of the current-day Exhibition Room (Photo by Satoru Inoue)

The exhibitions were suspended towards the latter half of the 1920s, but they resumed under Shinzo Koizumi's direction in 1931 with the “Memorial Exhibition for the Completion of the Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa.” The year after, another one was held titled "Keio University 75th Anniversary—History of Western Economic Thought." Then, in June 1934, under the directions of Seiichiro Takahashi, there was an exhibition that reflected the times titled "Exhibition of Nazi Literature," and in 1941, another one that displayed Takahashi's own private collection of Ukiyo-e prints.
 

After the Second World War, a lot of effort was put into the rebuilding and prescribed maintenance of the war-damaged buildings, and in 1952, exhibitions resumed with the “Exhibition of Rare Books Related to China.” After the opening of the Keio University Library (New Building) in 1982, Keio began actively promoting the small exhibitions using the display cases on the 1st floor.
 

Finally, in 2011, the computer area on the 1st floor was moved to the South School Building, and in this wide open space, a new 70 square meter Exhibition Room found a home. Since the “Keio University Library Collection—Historical Materials of Shonai Exhibit” in October 2011, compelling and unique exhibits have been held in this exhibition room.
 

In total, the number of exhibitions to date exceeds 300. All aspects of the exhibitions are the responsibility of library staff, from the planning stages, choosing which materials to display, the actual installation, making the exhibition catalog, to the promotion, and faculty members who are experts on the theme are asked for their input.
 

There are plans to hold various other exhibitions centering on Keio's collection. We urge you to visit the exhibition and view the books in person—an experience that cannot be replicated 'digitally'.

*This article appeared in the 2014 autumn edition (No.284) of “Juku”.