Japanese History Bibliographies (Subject Bibliography) Published in the Japanese Language

This webpage introduces search tools (subject bibliographies) chiefly in the Japanese language available mainly in the Tokyo Main Library Humanities Room to find reference resources (books, journal articles, etc.) related to Japanese history.

To search for journal articles, please refer to Article Index of Periodicals in Japanese.

Numbers shown in brackets 【 】 indicate the NDL call number for an item.

The [Range] field indicates the range of years during which the material of interest was cataloged and material format.

1. Searching Basic Literature

The following bibliographies are useful for searching for basic literature related to a particular era or theme.

  • Hideo Kuroda [et al.], ed.,"Nihonshi bunken jiten" (Encyclopedia of basic books in Japanese history research) (Kobundo 2003 【GB1-H14】)
    [Range] Chiefly books. Some articles published in books and journals
    [Order] Author name in Japanese alphabetical order
    [Index] Book/Article title index, subject/item index, name index, foreign language index
    [Notes] The back of the book includes a detailed listing of the contents of collected works and writings (in Japanese alphabetical order of author name), and a detailed listing of the contents of book series (in order of publication year).
  • "Tenbo nihon rekishi" (A survey of Japanese history) vol.2-6, 8-24 (Tokyodo Shuppan 2000- 【GB71-G78 et al.】)
    [Range] Articles published in books and journals
    [Notes] Includes the main text and explanations of the importance of each research article. Bibliographies of literature for relevant eras and themes are included in the back of each volume.

In addition to introducing research trends, the dictionaries below list significant literature at the back of each item.

2. Searching Research Trends

Bibliographies and reviews of the research literature printed in history journals are useful for investigating newly published literature and research trends. Here are a few typical bibliographies.

  • "Shigaku zasshi" (Journal of historical science) (Shigakkai monthly)
    *As for the NDL's holdings, the issues from 1889 to 1964 are on microfilm, 【YA-20】; issues from 1965 and after are available in paper form 【Z8-321】.

Shigaku bunken mokuroku : Nihonshi' (Historical science bibliography: Japanese history) (1960 (volume 69, number 7)-present annual the March (3), April (4), July (7), August (8), November (11), and December (12) issues)
[Range] 1960-present. Books, articles published in books and journals
[Order] Varies by content
[Index] None
[Notes] In recent years, the March (3), August (8), November (11), and December (12) issues have come to focus on research articles; the April (4) issue to focus on books, and the July (7) issue to focus on local history-related books.

・' XXXX nen no rekishi gakkaikaiko to tenbo' (Historical science of the previous year: review and perspective) (1950 (volume 59, number 5)-present annual May (5) issue) *For the year 1970, June (6) issue (volume 79, number 6) includes the content.
[Range] 1949-present. Books, articles published in books and journals
[Index] None
[Notes] Major literature are presented among the overview of research trends from the previous year. The ' 1948 nen no rekishi gakkai' (Historical science of 1948) was printed in volume 58, number 1 (1949) before it could be established as a special issue. Contents were reprinted in the form of the "Nihon rekishi gakkai no kaiko to tenbo" (Historical science in Japan: review and perspective) described below from 1949 until 1985 once they had been resorted and reorganized by topics such as region and era, etc.

・[Japanese history related] 'Zasshi ronbun mokuroku ' (Journal article catalog) (April 1955-present) published in each issue
[Range] Research papers published in journals (collected research articles such as historical research association/research organization newsletters, university/institutional bulletins, etc.)
[Order] Varies by content
[Index] None

Recent research papers have also been put together in the following bibliographies.

3. Searching Comprehensively

Bibliographies covering literature published more than 20-30 years ago are useful since they may bring up books and journal articles not cataloged in search services such as NDL Search or CiNii. The cumulative table of contents and general index for a particular journal may also be issued.

4. Searching by Era

5. Searching by Theme

The following tools are available for searching literature by theme:

6. Regional History

Please refer to Japanese Regional History Bibliographies (Subject Bibliography) Published in the Japanese Language.

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