Among the rare books in the collection of the Waseda University Library are many valuable materials from the Asian region beyond Japan. Here you can view materials related to folk religion and popular customs, particularly in China. The Fūryō Bunko forms the core of the collection. It was assembled by the distinguished scholar of Chinese literature, Professor Sawada Mizuho (1912-2002), and constitutes a large collection of materials on Chinese folk religion and popular literature. Therein are some two hundred texts, including Ming-period (1368-1644) editions, of a type of tale known as hōkan, the quantity and the quality of which make them extremely valuable. There are also decorative pictures for New Year known as nenga; folk arts that flourished in every era and region; musical pieces (popular songs) for the theater, and so on. In many cases materials of this sort have disappeared from the Chinese mainland and can no longer be viewed there in any great number, making the collection valuable for this reason too.