The present catalogue is published in comemoration of the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Ohara Institute for Social Research, Hosei University.

Our institute has greatly contributed to the researches of economics and social problems on through publishing the“Journal of the Ohara Institute for Social Reserch,” since it was founded in Osaka in 1919. It also takes a unique place in the world of labour history in Japan by its publication of a number of“Pamphlets” and“Archives”,as well as“The Labour Year-book of Japan”. At the same time our institute has always endeavoured to collect books relating to socialism and the history of labour. In this connection the activities, especially in Germany, of late Mr. Tamizo Kuchida, an ex-fellow and, mainly in Great Britain, of Prof. Samezo Kuruma, now chief director, in collecting many pieces of literature during several years after 1921, deserve special mention. It is these books that this catalogue chielly covers.

In the 1930’s the political situation of Japan became worse and worse and the problem arose whether our institute should be maintained or abolished; In 1937 it had to be removed to Tokyo, when we parted with 82,417 books, mainly about economics, to the Oska Prefecture. These books now belong to the Tennoji Branch of the Osaka Prefectural Library.

Our institute fell a victim to the bombing of Tokyo in May, 1945 and about seventy thousand books were destroyed by fire. But as a number of Japanese and foreign rare books and periodicals as well as materials of the labour and peasant movement in Japan were in safe custody, they were fortunately preserved. A part of them is contained in this catalogue.

Besides this, we possess the library on anarchism collected by the late Prof. Paul Eltzbacher. But this is not included in this catalogue; for its contents were already published–in our“Journal” vol.7, Nos. 2～3, before the War.

Many of the above-mentioned books and materials were left in disorder for so long a time during and after the War that not a few of them were lost and damaged. Moreover, they are not yet completely arranged even now. So this catalogue cannot be claimed as satisfactory. It will have to be revised and supplemented at some future time.

更新日：2014年12月17日