KF-Archive is named after Keifu 系譜, the Japanese word for genealogy. We are all descendants of ancestors, whose culture influences us continuously, so we must respect those ancestors' wisdom for the formation of our own identity and the development of our ability. The system of acquiring wisdom does not change with the times or the places, so the greater sense of history we have, the better perception we acquire. The wise people possess the acumen to find much from little, to reveal inner truths from outside things, to form a whole out of various parts, to discover novel facts hidden in common sense, to detect nuances in clichés, and to accomplish new achievements with inspiration. We trust that our duty is to immortalize the results of their wisdom, recognizing the fact that the discovery of analogy between various fields is based on refinement and experience. In order to attain this purpose, we consider that the most appropriate way is to accumulate the classics of all periods and cultures scattered around the world, to organize them systematically through genealogy, to enable everyone to access them freely, and to leave them to future generations with the use of information technology, which is adapted to present society. Genealogy proposes the analogy from longitudinal generations to the relationship between pupils and teachers, and from lateral relatives to the fellowship of the same age. Therefore, we will conserve the best classics which have been handed down by many generations, not using natural resources by substituting physical media to electrical media, then we will update through research sources and genealogy, which is the cartography of the classics since the dawn of history, so as to acquire multilateral and novel aspects.

KF-Archive upholds the renaissance from force-fed education to aesthetic education by respecting ancestors' wisdom preserved in the classics. This respect for the classics will cultivate both a deeper refinement and a greater dignity in humanity. It will also form next generations who show moderate and reasonable determination in extreme circumstances. Education affects our entire life. Hence, if we do not hinder the development of inquiring minds throughout our entire lives, we respect the regulations that appear in the classics and we get, from a free state, a view of the whole that helps us to be exempt from preoccupations, for it can have a great influence on our identities and abilities in a propitious life. We foster aesthetic activities by developing our refined sensitivity in a spirit of the best classics, and academic activities by compiling reliable material in scholarly fashion. We organize classics circles that promote friendliness among citizens without distinction of ranks, then cooperate with public institutions in the veneration of wise ancestors. It goes without saying that we intend, too, to present public-domain intellectual properties for the good of the general public, and thus to honor our forerunners by scrutinizing the past, then to apply it to the present and benefit the future generations. While doing so, we do not intend to praise the classics without critique, but we will present our balanced and honest opinions on them.

KF-Archive is founded as a corporation which will implement versatile projects with a view to acquiring, preserving, providing, and presenting classics with the collaboration of people's confidence, experience, expertise, and knowledge, while at the same time forming successors who will continue this project. We need confidence in order to acquire a great variety of classics, experience to preserve them, expertise to accumulate them extensively, and knowledge to present them to a universal audience. We have no intent of monopolizing public-domain intellectual properties for personal profit; hence we will implement these projects in conformity with the Act to Promote Specified Nonprofit Activities. We will always appreciate your assistance.

Yasuhiro Nakanishi, Chairperson of the Specified Nonprofit Corporation KF-Archive

Your donations are always welcome at the account number which appears below, as well as anonymous contributions.
We highly appreciate any academic or technical suggestion. Please don't hesitate to get in contact with us.
You may also lend or donate to us sources, scores and documents of classical or ethnological music.
KF-Archive accumulates any primary source, such as sound source, musicological edition and authentic manuscripts.
We enable everyone to have free access to public-domain material whose copyright and other related rights have expired.
Valuable material digitalized in the highest quality bears the names of all contributors. Anonymous contributions are also welcome.
Owing to your kind collaboration, we promise to work for you with whole devotedness.

The Protection Period of Copyright and of Other Related Rights in Japanese Law
♦ Real name and well-known pseudonym: 50 years from the author's death.
♦ Anonym and pseudonym: 50 years from publication or from the author's death.
♦ Group name: 50 years from publication or creation.
♦ An extension of 10 years is provided for the authors who were citizens of the Allied Countries of World War II.
♦ Other related rights are protected for 50 years after the first performance or the recording.

Therefore, for the works recorded more than 50 years ago, as well as those whose authors have passed away more than 50 years ago, the protection period of copyright and of related rights has expired; hence those works have become public-domain, and as such freely accessible to everyone.

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