Yōmei Bunko


Yōmei Bunko, located in Utanokaminotanicho, Ukyō-ku, Kyoto, is a historical archive containing approximately 100,000 objects collected over the centuries by the Konoe family, the foremost of the five regent houses of the imperial court nobility. The collection includes manuscripts, books, records, journals, letters, and antique works of art. In 1938, the Yōmei Bunko Foundation was established in its current location near Ninnaji Temple in northwest Kyoto by Fumimaro Konoe, then head of the family and prime minister of Japan. Materials preserved in the archive illustrate over 1,000 years of Japan's history, ranging from the "Midō Kanpaku-ki", the diary in his own hand of Fujiwara no Michinaga, one of the ancestors of the Konoe family, to 20th century materials relating to Fumimaro Konoe himself. The work of the archive includes making the collection available to researchers, conducting its own research, loaning items to exhibitions, and publishing facsimiles.
In April 2012, Yōmei Bunko changed its legal status to become a public interest incorporated foundation.

The Konoe family and Yōmei Bunko

Konoe Fumimaro, founder of Yōmei Bunko
The Konoe family is a branch of the Northern Fujiwara. In the 12th century, the Fujiwara Clan monopolized the highest offices of state. Fujiwara no Tadamichi served as sesshō, kanpaku and daijō-daijin. The Konoe branch of the Fujiwara began with Tadamichi’s eldest son, Konoe Motozane. Tadamichi’s third son, Kujō Kanezane founded the Kujō family. Later, the Takatsukasa split from the Konoe, and the Nijō and Ichijō from the Kujō. These families would become known as the five regent houses.
Successive heads of the Konoe family preserved many important documents, from family diaries to records of imperial court rituals and ceremonies. These were men who occupied the highest offices of the land, often as sesshō or kanpaku, throughout the Heian period. Although they had no official authority after the Heian gave way to the Kamakura period, the Konoe family continued to retain great influence as a regent house, deeply involved with court ritual and ceremony. The commitment to preserving the family legacy of important records grew from this long history of leading roles in both government and at court.
From generation to generation, the heads of the Konoe family, themselves usually both highly cultured and artistically accomplished, continued to organize and add to the collection. The 13th head of the family, Konoe Masaie, served as kanpaku and daijō-daijin during the upheavals of the Sengoku, or Warring States, period. During the Ōnin and Bunmei wars, he sent 50 boxes of the family records for safekeeping to Iwakura, on the northern outskirts of Kyoto. This ensured that, when the Konoe family mansion was burned down in the Ōnin War, the records survived. The 16th head of the family, Konoe Sakihisa, was serving as kanpaku during the Honnō-ji Incident that led to the collapse of the Ashikaga shogunate and the ascendancy of the Tokugawa. As kanpaku, he went on to form an alliance with Uesugi Kenshin, taking part in campaigns fought in Echigo and Kanto provinces. Despite living through one of Japan's most chaotic periods, Sakihisa found time to devote himself to cultural pursuits, becoming not only a renowned calligrapher, but also the leading waka and renga poet of his day.
The 17th head of the family, Konoe Nobutada, was one of the Kan'ei Sanpitsu, the pre-eminent calligraphers of the period. Nobutada had no heir, so he adopted his nephew Konoe Nobuhiro, who was the fourth son of Emperor Go-Yōzei. Nobuhiro was also a man of high culture, notably skilled in calligraphy, tea ceremony, and renga poetry. In the mid Edo period, the 21st head of the family, Konoe Iehiro was also famed for his artistic accomplishments as calligrapher and tea master. Iehiro compiled the Ōtekagami, an album of outstanding works of calligraphy from all ages that is now a National Treasure, and also personally hand-copied a large number of old calligraphic masterpieces that are only known to us today through Iehiro’s transcriptions.
On several occasions in modern times, beginning from 1900, this ancient family collection was entrusted to the Kyoto University Library. Finally, Fumimaro Konoe, while serving as prime minister in the troubled times before and during the Second World War, decided to establish the Yōmei Bunko Foundation in 1938 as a permanent repository for his family’s historical archive. The name Yōmei was taken from an alternative name for the Konoe family which derived from the Yōmeimon Gate, one of the 12 gates to the imperial palace outer grounds, inside which stood the old Konoe mansion.
The Yōmei Bunko occupies an approximately 8,550m2 site in the Rakusai district, close to Ninna-ji Temple. In addition to the original buildings, two repositories and a reading room/office building, the Sukiya style Kozansō was added in 1944. Important examples of Showa period architecture, these have all been registered as National Tangible Cultural Assets. Most of the grounds lie within one of Kyoto's Preservation Districts for Groups of Historic Buildings, and adjoining the site to the north is a 28,916m2 forested hilly area containing numerous ponds also destined for preservation as a protected environment and landscape.
The library collection contains many significant historical journals written by court nobility in addition to the Midō Kanpaku-ki diary of Fujiwara no Michinaga. There are letters written in their own hand by emperors and prominent historical figures, items related to court ceremonies and ritual, old manuscripts relating ancient legends and imperial poetry collections. In addition to being an invaluable historical resource, the collection also represents a unique history of the art of calligraphy.
While many of the ancestral treasures of the old aristocratic and daimyō families were lost in the aftermath of the Second World War, this legacy of the Konoe family survived thanks to the timely establishment of the foundation, a fact that makes the collection even more uniquely valuable.
Exhibits are displayed in a room on the upper floor of the library, although as a rule this is not open to the general public without a letter of introduction. Facsimiles of major documents are regularly published in editions of the Yōmei Sōsho.

Cultural properties

National treasures

Diaries by Konoe family heads

Tales and Poetry Anthologies
Visits to the archive require a letter of reference from an accredited scholar or researcher.
Public exhibitions are held for three months in spring and autumn, from 10 am to 16 pm, closed Sundays and holidays.
Location and access:
Address: Utanokaminotanicho 1-2, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto
Access: Take the bus for Togano-o from Kyoto Station. Get off at the Fukuōji stop and it is only a few minutes walk.

Footnotes