The Japanese Naval Drawings and Notebooks collection is a group of Japanese manuscripts (flat drawings, scrolls, and notebooks) acquired from New York bookseller Stephen Feldman (Asian Rare Books). Provenance is unknown. The drawings and illustrations are of military technologies, including fortifications, cannon, rifles, and knots. Some items bear the surname Kitō or Kidō (木藤) of Satsuma Domain (薩藩). Although most are undated, the materials appear to be from the nineteenth century.

We invite Japanese history specialists, especially those with expertise about the early history of the Imperial Japanese Navy, to help us improve our cataloging of these documents. We welcome your contributions of names, dates, locations, descriptions, context, background and other information. Please notify us as well if you reference these materials in scholarly publications. Email us at: eaj@osu.edu

Logo: Munitions detail drawing (4 of 5), SPEC.RARE.CMS.396 box 1 folder 7, The Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.