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.