Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives

Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives (山口県文書館) opened in Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, in 1959 as the country's first dedicated modern archival institution.

History
In Shōwa 27 (1952), the Mōri family, former daimyō of Chōshū Domain, deposited its domainal documents with Yamaguchi Prefecture, whereupon they were stored, alongside materials gathered by the pre-war Prefectural History Compilation Office, at Yamaguchi Prefectural Library (ja). These items were transferred in with the opening of Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives in 1959; donations and deposits - including materials from the Tokuyama Domain Mōri family - have continued since.

Holdings
The archives holds approximately 530,000 documents, roughly divided into five groups:
 * Domain documents, including:
 * Mōri Family Library (毛利家文庫)
 * Tokuyama Mōri Family Library (徳山毛利家文庫)
 * Prefectural Government's Old Clan Records (県庁伝来旧藩記録)
 * Administrative documents, from the Meiji era onwards
 * Administrative materials, from the Meiji era onwards
 * Publications, photographs, films, audio recordings, etc.
 * Family documents, including:
 * Corporation, foundation, and family documents, including those of Edo period samurai houses
 * Special library
 * Textbooks, newspapers, etc.

Cultural Properties
The holdings include seven Important Cultural Properties, two Prefectural Cultural Properties, and three Municipal Tangible Cultural Properties.

Important Cultural Properties

 * Arimitsu Family Documents (有光家文書・長門国正吉郷入江塩浜絵図): 121 items, dating from the Kamakura period to the Edo period, together with a map of the Nagato Province Masayoshi Irie Salt Fields
 * Kumagaya Family Documents (熊谷家文書（二百五十五通）): 255 documents mounted as 13 scrolls, dating from the Kamakura period to the Edo period
 * Takasu Family Documents (高洲家文書・日明貿易船旗): 117 items, dating from 1351–1643, together with a Japan-Ming trade ship flag of Wanli 12 (1584)
 * Ōuchi Edition Lotus Sūtra Woodblocks (大内版法華経板木): 59 woodblocks of the Muromachi period
 * Noshima Murakami Family Documents (能島村上家文書・過所船旗): 199 items from the sixteenth century, together with a flag pass of Tenshō 9 (1581)
 * Administrative Documents of Yamaguchi Prefecture (山口県行政文書): 13,549 items, dating from the Edo period to the Shōwa era
 * Former Yamaguchi Prefectural Office and Prefectural Assembly Hall, together with construction records and plans (山口県旧県庁舎及び県会議事堂附工事関係記録6冊設計図5): 6 construction records and 5 plans, from the Taishō era

Prefectural Cultural Properties

 * Materials relating to Yoshida Shōin (transmitted by the Yoshida family) (吉田松陰関係資料（吉田家伝来）): 754 items, including a portrait inscribed by Yoshida in the fifth month of Ansei 6 (1859), and his zeppitsu or final writing (Tangible Cultural Property)
 * Oda Family Household Items, Merchant House Materials, and Townhouse (小田家の生活用具・商家資料・町家): 1,011 documents (Tangible Folk Cultural Property)