Imperial Library (Japan)
Coordinates: 35°43′10.5″N 139°46′25.4″E / 35.719583°N 139.773722°E
The Imperial Library (帝国図書館 Teikoku Toshokan) of the Empire of Japan was established in 1872. Prior to World War II, it was the only national library in Japan. It is one of the predecessors of the current National Diet Library.
The Imperial Library of Japan was established as the Shojaku-kan (書籍館) under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education on September 3, 1872. The library was housed within the Yushima Seidō and combined the functions of both a library and a museum, and inherited the surviving documents held by the Tokugawa shogunate prior to the Meiji Restoration. This collection evolved into the Tokyo Shojakukan (東京書籍館) in 1875, which was made a deposit library for all publications in Japan and was renamed the Tokyo Prefectural Library in 1877 and the Tokyo Library in 1880. It was relocated to Ueno in 1885.
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