I am in possession of an archive of material in which these two items are a part:

(1) A holographic manuscript written in Japanese with a red ink chop.
http://www.bibliopath.com/books/manuscript.jpg

(2) A small card printed in Japanese.
http://www.bibliopath.com/books/card.jpg

I need a translation of both these items into English. If possible
please indicate as well what the chop mark indicates. You may view the
items at the provided links.

Thank you in advance

The small card has something to do with wishing a "Happy New Year".

The first three Kanji (right-hand column)
??? 
kyoo ga shin 

as mentioned here:
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=606D (in French)

I am still searching for a precise translation of the fourth Japanese character.
A modern way of writing the fourth Japanese character:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/AnimeComic-Name/4257/gift/newyear04.jpg

Not quite the character in question:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Hinoki/6129/column/column013.html

Thank you very much for the information provided thus far. There are
some differences. Is this in an out of date way of writing? It may
help you to know that the items came from "His Excellency, Ambassador
of Japan, Japanese Embassy, Washington, DC" and that the letters
included with these items range in date from 1902 to 1914.

The translation of the card is roughly as follows:
"Happy New Year (gong he xin xi in Hanyu Pinyin)

Thank you for taking care of me during the past year. I hope that you
will continue to take good care of me in the coming year.

Sender's address

From sender: Hirata Bun/Fumi u a mon

2 January"

The first 4 words are actually very common in Chinese, they mean "Happy New Year".

As for the first manuscript, it is quite difficult to translate due to
the nature of the writing.

The fifth column of the manuscript (from right to left) mentions a date:

???????(character for "20")??

Meiji 15th year 4th month 27th day

i.e. 27th April 1882
http://www.artelino.com/articles/japanese_calendar.asp


??
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=660E
?
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=5341
?
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=4E94
? 
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=5E74
?
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=56DB
? 
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=6708

(character for "twenty") according to "Japanese-English Character
Dictionary" by Nelson
http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/title.cgi?title_id=1065

?
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=4E03
?
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=65E5

The first two characters in the next column are

??

Tokyo
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=6771


The right-hand column of the red seal:

????  

(i.e. an old way of writing ?)
http://kanji.free.fr/kanji.php?unicode=5B66

Tokyo Daigaku
Tokyo University
http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gen03/b03_02_e.html

I appreciate all of your efforts to help translate these items.

bibliopath-ga San,

Actually, the fourth Kanji "?"(ki) of the new years card is not a
Japanese Kanji character. "????"(kyo-ga shin-ki) comes from Chinese. 
In those days, well-educated Japanese could read Chinese classics.

Regarding the letter with a red chop mark, I can read only part of the
sentences because they are written in cursive style, but the meaning
is like this:

"Greetings  I appreciate that you contributed book(s) to the University.
Sincerely yours.

Meiji 15th year (AD.1882) / April 27th
Kato Hiroyuki (sender's name), President, the University of Tokyo
To Edwin A Barsell(spelling may not be correct.) Esq."

And the red chop read "seal of Kato Hiroyuki, President, the University of Tokyo".

bibliopath-ga San may know that Kato Hiroyuki was a political
scientist and the first president of the University of Tokyo.  Meiji
15th year was the second year since he became president, as he was
appointed as the president in Meiji 14th year (1881).

Here's Kato's photo and description (sorry it's in Japanese):
http://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/datas/56.html?c=9

And description of the University of Tokyo:
http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gen01/b01_01_e.html
Chronology:
http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gen03/b03_02_e.html

regards,

Water_lily-ga, wouldn't ???? be Berbell (or Barbell), i.e. not Barsell?

Regards,
fp-ga

fp-ga San,

You are right.  It must be Barbell or Berbell.

Thanks for your remark.