Kokusho Sōmokuroku

The Kokusho Sōmokuroku (国書総目録)loosely, "General Catalog of National Books") is a Japanese reference work that indexes books published in Japan or written by Japanese before 1867. First published by the Iwanami Shoten company in 1963, an expanded edition was released in 1989. In its current edition, the Kokusho Sōmokuroku consists of eight volumes, in addition to an author index and appendix. The catalog was put together by compiling over one million library catalog cards from over 600 libraries across Japan in an effort to catalog books published before the Meiji Restoration still in existence that were written in Japan or by Japanese nationals. The catalog does not contain Chinese classics, Buddhist scriptures, or books from non-Japanese sources.