Soseki Collection

This collection consists of the literary legend Soseki Natsume's (1867-1916) former collection of books, handwritten materials such as his diary, notebooks, examination questions, and manuscripts, as well as other materials related to Soseki. This collection includes most of Soseki's former collection, including approximately 1,650 Foreign books and 1,200 Japanese and Chinese books. The foreign books include approximately 500 books that Soseki purchased when he studied abroad in England. Although the total volume is not large for a scholar's collection, about 30% of the books have writings or underlines written by Soseki himself. The biggest feature of the Soseki collection is that most of the books in the collection are the books that Soseki actually picked up and read, or that he intended to read. For this reason, it is considered an important resource for Soseki research.

Thanks to the efforts of Toyotaka Komiya (1884-1966), the university's library director at the time and a favorite pupil of Soseki, this collection was transferred to the Tohoku University Library. The transportation began in 1943 and was completed in March 1944. These valuable materials for Soseki research escaped the fires of war by being transferred. Because Waseda Minami Street, where Soseki-Sanbo was located, was burned down in an air raid on March 10th, 1945.