| Ohara Institute for Social Research is
now part of Hosei University and is housed in the new campus far out in
a Tokyo subburb, Machida-shi. It is the oldest labor history archive in
Japan, founded in 1919 in Osaka by the wealthy textile entrepeneur Magosaburo
Ohara (1878-1943). He supported the institute till 1939, it was then sold
to the city of Osaka and end ended up after WWII in Tokyo. Most of the collection
survived the fire bombardments. Its actual premises are in a modern well
equiped building, with ample storage space. In January 1999 I was guided trhough the storage rooms by profesoor Kazuo Nimura (now emeritus) and professor Seiichiro Hayakawa. These scrolls are still missing their sub-titles... which depend on information that is on a taperecording (of meagre quality) taken at the same time and the photographs ans still needs to be transcribed.... tj. The English web page of the Ohara Institute can be found at: http://oohara.mt.tama.hosei.ac.jp/english/index.html |
