Staff of the University of Michigan Asia Library have recently uncovered a cache of old Japanese books, consisting of approximately 2,000 volumes, and mostly dating to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The materials constitute the Kamada Collection, which the Library purchased from Japan during the 1940s, while Japan remained under Allied Occupation.

This group of books was originally owned by Japanese entrepreneur Katsutaro Kamada, who later served as a senator and became a powerful political figure in Japan. Most of these books are bound with thread in the traditional East Asian fashion ("Watojibon"), and their subjects deal with Buddhism and literature in China and Japan and with Japanese geography. After their acquisition by the Asia Library, this collection languished in a small storage room until their discovery in early 2010. Asia Library staff members will be conducting further research to learn more about what this collection contains.