International Library of Children's Literature, National Diet Library
The mission of the International Library of Children's Literature, National Diet Library, is to widely collect materials and information from home and abroad, encourage children to joyfully read, and support activities and researches related to children's books as a part of the National Diet Library and also as the only national library specialized in children's books. (12-49 Uenokoen, Taito City)
The history of modern libraries exists here.
The International Library of Children's Literature (the former Imperial Library) has inherited the tradition from "Shojaku-kan," a public library, which opened within Yushima Seido in August 1872. Shojaku-kan was renamed several times, and finally became the Imperial Library in April 1897. This building was constructed in Ueno Park in March 1906 as a new building of the Imperial Library. In the draft plan worked out in 1899, it was expected to be the largest library in the East, housing 1.2 million books and 730 reading rooms, with a total floor area of 20,000 square meters, when all the facilities would be completed. However, only a quarter of the whole building was constructed in the first term construction due to the financial situation at that time. Later, it was enlarged to the present scale in the second term construction in 1929.
Although it had been operated as "Shibu Ueno Library," or Ueno branch library, National Diet Library, since 1949, it was renamed the International Library of Children's Literature, and opened in May 2000. Along with the new building (the arch-shaped building) added in 2015, the building of the former Imperial Library has still retained remnants of the Renaissance style building, that is "the brick building," when it was founded in the Meiji Period. (continued in the lower column)
Complete view of the International Library of Children's Literature (architectural model)
The older building of the International Library of Children's Literature (the brick building) was designed as the Imperial Library by Masamichi Kuru, Hideo Mamizu and Tokitaro Okada, and its first term construction started in 1906. The building was enlarged in the second term construction in 1929, and the new building (the arch-shaped building), designed by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates and Nikken Sekkei, was completed in 2015. The exterior and the interior of the older building (the brick building) were also repaired and restored in 2002 and 2016, and traces of the original building was revived, making a splendid contrast between the old and the new buildings. The older building (the brick building) is designated as a historic building in Tokyo.
The courtyard of the International Library of Children's Literature: The glass wall of the new building (the arch-shaped building) shows a magnificent arch.
View of the courtyard from the roof of the new building
International Library of Children's Literature, National Diet Library
The mission of the International Library of Children's Literature, National Diet Library, is to widely collect materials and information from home and abroad, encourage children to joyfully read, and support activities and researches related to children's books as a part of the National Diet Library and also as the only national library specialized in children's books. (12-49 Uenokoen, Taito City)
