The Lisa Sainsbury Library was formally opened by the Ambassador of Japan, Mr Orita Masaki, in 2003. The facilities of the Lisa Sainsbury Library at the Norwich headquarters of the Sainsbury Institute are open to researchers in Japanese studies by appointment. The main reading room on the first floor and the storeroom on the ground floor have a wide selection of reference books and computer terminals for the convenience of library users. All materials are for use within the Library. A black and white photocopier is available within the limits of copyright law. The Library is open from Monday to Friday, from 9.30am to 4.30pm. It is closed on Bank Holidays and during the Institute holidays at Easter and Christmas. Please email the Librarian, Akira Hirano, for all Library enquiries. + Search the Lisa Sainsbury Library Catalogue

Institute affiliated scholars also have full library privileges at the SOAS Library, which has a book stock of over 850,000 volumes, approximately 4,500 periodicals and an extensive collection of archives and manuscripts. + Search SOAS Online Catalogue

The Sainsbury Institute gives an annual grant to fund the purchase of books on Japanese art and culture in the SOAS library. The long-term goal is to make the SOAS-Sainsbury Institute library consortium one of top resources in the West for volumes on Japanese art and culture. The library project, inaugurated in 1999, has focused on acquiring out-of-print books from the post-war period and recently published multi-volume series on Japanese art, especially in the areas of Japanese painting, prints, and calligraphy. Purchases of rare or out-of-print books on highly specialised topics are coordinated to make collections of SOAS Library and the Lisa Sainsbury Library supplement and build on each other.

The Lisa Sainsbury Library has been presented with over 3000 books from the collection of the late Professor Yanagisawa Taka of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties Research Institute in Tokyo (Tobunken). Professor Yanagisawa was a leading specialist in Buddhist art, and this collection represents an important development for the Library collections in this subject area. The books will subsequently be catalogued and available to readers in the Library. The Sainsbury Institute is very grateful to Professor Kawai Masatomo of Keio University for arranging this very significant donation.

An important and fascinating collection of Japanese and European maps of Japan is currently being held at the Library, and is likely to draw interest from scholars around the world. The collection is on long-term loan, with a view to donation, from Sir Hugh and Lady Cortazzi. Sir Hugh is a former British ambassador to Japan who has already made a generous donation of over 1000 books to the Lisa Sainsbury Library. It includes several unique maps, the earliest dating from 1528, and some rare ceramics. The Sainsbury Institute, working with the Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, has digitised the maps and made them available to scholars everywhere via the web. + Search Maps of Japan

In the autumn of 2001, over 15,000 volumes on Japanese art, which formerly belonged to the Japanese art historian Matsushita Takaaki, were donated to the Library. The donation of this superb collection of books on Japanese medieval art was arranged by Professor Matsushita's son-in-law, Professor Masatomo Kawai of Keio University. With this comprehensive collection of books as its core, the Institute will soon become one of the foremost libraries of Japanese art studies in Europe. Books donated to the Library are catalogued and accessible via the Internet. We also expect that scholars wishing to take full advantage of the collection and pleasant working conditions at the Library will find opportunities to make short-or long-term visits to the Institute in Norwich.

Several other important donations have come in rapid succession, including a large collection of books on Japanese art and history donated by Sir Hugh and Lady Cortazzi. Sir Hugh was formerly the British ambassador to Japan and is a noted scholar in his own right. This collection includes a number of important and rare volumes of books. Sir Hugh and Lady Cortazzi also gave the Lisa Sainsbury Library about 40 Yokohama prints (ukiyo-e showing foreigners) and some other prints and paintings as long-term loan. In addition, Sir Hugh and Lady Cortazzi have placed their valuable collection of Japanese ceramics, in particular pieces by Living National Treasure Shimaoka Tatsuzo, on long-term loan with the Institute, and some of them are now on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

Among the first collections to be acquired by the Library, through the generosity of Lady Sainsbury, was part of Janet Leach's personal library. This is a collection of approximately 200 books on East Asian ceramics once owned by her husband, the celebrated potter Bernard Leach. The collection has recently been described in Sadahiro Suzuki, 'Seinzuberi Nihon Geijutsu Kenkyujo shozo Banado Richi kyuzo sho korekushon ni tsuite' (The Bernard Leach Book Collection at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures), in Hikaku bungaku bunka ronshu /Proceedings of Comparative Literature & Culture, University of Tokyo, 2001, pp. 13-21.