The CEEJA Edo-bunko (“CEEJA Edo Library”) is a collection of currently around 500 titles (individual volumes and series) of works from the Edo period (1600–1868) and the early Meiji period (1868–1912). These works, which are often illustrated and partly coloured, vividly represent the everyday world of the people at that time.

The Edo period works include Confucian writings, writings on agriculture and religion, encyclopaedias, textbooks from temple schools (terakoya), books on mathematics, medical works, technical instructions for carpenters, pilgrimage and travel reports, advice for merchants, books for women, works on theatre, ikebana, etc., as well as multi-volume series of popular literature. An important criterion for selecting material for this collection was the use of these books as part of everyday life.

Since these writings deal with specific subject areas and genres, etc., in different forms and with different designs, they also represent the comprehensive (but often underestimated) material book culture of the Edo period.

The works from the early Meiji period are primarily translations of Western books, especially on the natural sciences such as physics, chemistry and geography. They were important sources for the development of these modern sciences in Japan.

A preliminary catalogue in Japanese, created by HATA Yuki and continually updated, can be found here.

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