The British Library's Sado mining scrolls

Abstract

AMONG the nearly eleven hundred works acquired by the British Museum from the collection of Philipp Franz von Siebold in 1868 were three hand-painted scrolls depicting mining activities on the Japanese island of Sado. The scrolls belong to a genre of manuscripts known as Kinzan emaki (Illustrated scrolls of gold mines) or Kinginzan emaki (Illustrated scrolls of gold and silver mines), which provide a detailed representation of both the underground mine workings and the various refining processes and administrative operations that went on above ground.