Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives
Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives opened in Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, in 1959 as the country's first dedicated modern archival institution.
History
In Shōwa 27, the Mōri family, former daimyō of Chōshū Domain, deposited its domainal documents with Yamaguchi Prefecture, whereupon they were stored, alongside materials gathered by the pre-war Prefectural History Compilation Office, at Yamaguchi Prefectural Library. These items were transferred in with the opening of Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives in 1959; donations and deposits - including materials from the Tokuyama Domain Mōri family - have continued since.Holdings
The archives holds approximately 530,000 documents, roughly divided into five groups:- Domain documents, including:
- * Mōri Family Library
- * Tokuyama Mōri Family Library
- * Prefectural Government's Old Clan Records
- Administrative documents, from the Meiji era onwards
- Administrative materials, from the Meiji era onwards
- * Publications, photographs, films, audio recordings, etc.
- Family documents, including:
- * Corporation, foundation, and family documents, including those of Edo period samurai houses
- Special library
- *Textbooks, newspapers, etc.
Cultural Properties
The holdings include seven Important Cultural Properties, two Prefectural Cultural Properties, and three Municipal Tangible Cultural Properties.Important Cultural Properties
- Arimitsu Family Documents: 121 items, dating from the Kamakura period to the Edo period, together with a map of the Nagato Province Masayoshi Irie Salt Fields
- Kumagaya Family Documents: 255 documents mounted as 13 scrolls, dating from the Kamakura period to the Edo period
- Takasu Family Documents: 117 items, dating from 1351–1643, together with a Japan-Ming trade ship flag of Wanli 12
- Ōuchi clan: 59 woodblocks of the Muromachi period
- Noshima Murakami Family Documents: 199 items from the sixteenth century, together with a flag pass of Tenshō 9
- Administrative Documents of Yamaguchi Prefecture: 13,549 items, dating from the Edo period to the Shōwa era
- Former Yamaguchi Prefectural Office and Prefectural Assembly Hall, together with construction records and plans: 6 construction records and 5 plans, from the Taishō era
Prefectural Cultural Properties
- Materials relating to Yoshida Shōin : 754 items, including a portrait inscribed by Yoshida in the fifth month of Ansei 6, and his zeppitsu or final writing
- Oda Family Household Items, Merchant House Materials, and Townhouse: 1,011 documents