The C. V. Starr East Asian Library at UC Berkeley has recently registered to access to Rekishiteki Ongen (Rekion) (http://rekion.dl.ndl.go.jp/) the Japanese Historical Recordings Collection provided by the National Diet Library (NDL). Compiled by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) in cooperation with the NDL, this archive consists of over 48,000 digitized recordings from 1900-1950. With this registration, UC Berkeley faculty and students are now able to access any of the over 47,000 historical recordings marked as “Available only at the NDL/Rekion partner libraries” in the website on the dedicated public PC in the East Asian Library (please ask at the Circulation Desk for the dedicated PC and its ID/password for access). To use the Rekion collection at the Library, please bring your own headsets.
If you would like to see the list of all 48,000+ recordings offered at the Rekion website, click “Browse all recordings” link in “Browse by Title” box. Although the audio files cannot be downloaded, we still hope that the availability of these resources will assist your research in Japanese culture and history, music, and other subjects.
If you have any questions or comments on this resource, please contact Toshie Marra.