The Man Called “Fukuda the Exhaustive Searcher”: The Legend of Book Lover Kugao Fukuda of Kanda’s Old-Book District | Book Lovers of the Old-Book District #1

“There may have been days when the crows didn’t caw, but there was never a day he didn’t show up at a used-book fair.” Kugao Fukuda was a bibliographer whom his mentor, Hideo Odagiri, dubbed “Fukuda the Exhaustive Searcher.” This is the story of a man who haunted the booksellers’ hall in Kanda and generously handed the materials he found to young scholars. (From the new series “Book Lovers of the Old-Book District” #1, Hon no Machi, May 2026 issue)

Known to Those in the Know: Kugao Fukuda

Kugao Fukuda’s knowledge of the documentary sources of modern Japanese literature was unrivaled—so much so that the literary critic Hideo Odagiri, whom he revered as his mentor at Hosei University, called him “Fukuda the Exhaustive Searcher.” To that end he made the rounds of the used-book fairs, and there may have been days when the crows didn’t caw, but there was never a day he didn’t show up at a fair. In his own words: “In the blazing heat of summer and the bitter cold of winter, rain or wind, on these days alone I get up early. The one thing I absolutely cannot miss is the used-book fair held every Friday and Saturday at the Kanda Kosho Kaikan.” And: “If I missed it two or three times, my fellow fair-goers would laugh and say, ‘So he’s finally gone and died’” (Hon no Mado, August 1995). As for his book hunting during the war, he went about it “in a forbidding outfit of an air-raid hood and steel helmet, laced boots and puttees, walking here and there on an empty stomach, still searching for secondhand bookshops” (“Ichigo Ichie: Thirty Years of Book Collecting,” Nihon Kosho Tsushin, April 1972). His tenacity was simply ferocious.

After the war, he always came to the Tokyo Kosho Kaikan (Tokyo Antiquarian Booksellers’ Hall) in Kanda in a suit and tie. After looking over everything once, he would have coffee at “Sekai,” the kissaten (a traditional Japanese coffee house) next door to the hall. His fellow used-book lovers would gather there. Shintaro Takahashi, known for his massive buying sprees of old books, named these gatherings, where Fukuda poured out his deep knowledge of documents and sources, the “Fukuda Salon.”

“Fukuda Volunteering”: Selfless Help Beyond All Measure

There is, as it happens, something of a Kugao Fukuda legend. He would unstintingly give the rare materials he dug up at book fairs and elsewhere to young researchers, and speak passionately about the importance of those sources. Yasuyoshi Sekiguchi, a professor of Japanese literature at Tsuru University, once called Fukuda’s selfless help to researchers, which went beyond all measure, “Fukuda volunteering.” The researchers who were indebted to Fukuda in their search for sources are too many to count. Sekiguchi counts himself among them, saying that his series of critical biographies, beginning with Hyoden Toyoshima Yoshio (A Critical Biography of Yoshio Toyoshima), and his work on the ten-volume Akutagawa Ryunosuke Kenkyu Shiryo Shusei (Collected Research Materials on Ryunosuke Akutagawa), plus one supplementary volume, “would not have been possible without Fukuda’s bibliographic help” (“A Bibliographer Known to Those in the Know,” Shukan Dokushojin, May 1999).

I too owe Mr. Fukuda an enormous scholarly debt, and, as we shared an awareness of descending from retainers of the former shogunate, our friendship lasted some twenty years. With his strong spirit of independence from the academic establishment, he would talk about forgotten polemicists such as Odo Tanaka, Choko Ikuta, Waihan Nomura, Kojiro Sugimori and Ryokuyo Sato, yet he left no book of his own during his lifetime. He used to say that great scholars such as Kokichi Kano, Yasuji Otsuka, Yasukazu Fukada and Yosaburo Seki had never written books, and that he wished to follow humbly in their footsteps. Even so, he left behind work as editor and author of commentaries for Hirotsu Kazuo Shoki Bungei Hyoron (Early Literary Criticism of Kazuo Hirotsu) (Kodansha, 1965), Abe Tomoji Zenshu (The Complete Works of Tomoji Abe) (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 1974) and Chiba Kameo Chosakushu (The Collected Works of Kameo Chiba) (Yumani Shobo, 1991), among others.

His Posthumous Book, Tansho Gojunen

After his death, I served as lead editor in publishing a book of Mr. Fukuda’s writings. Titled Tansho Gojunen (Fifty Years of Book Hunting) (Fuji Shuppan, 1999), it opens with a heartfelt piece by Hideo Odagiri, “In Lieu of a Preface: A Friendship of Fifty Years.” When the book came out, the literary critic Kuninori Kimura wrote: “Tansho Gojunen, the posthumous book of the late Kugao Fukuda (died March 8), who was described as ‘known to those in the know’ for his documentary research on Taisho-era thought and literary criticism, is the sweetest nectar in years for anyone who loves books” (“The Postwar Is Not Yet Over,” Tokyo Shimbun, May 1999). Hiroshi Tarumi, too, in “Death of a Document Hunter” (Furuhon-zuki [Fond of Old Books], privately printed, 2004), recalled that Mr. Fukuda “walked the used-book districts of Jimbocho and Waseda more than half the days of the week and never missed a weekend sale at the Kosho Kaikan. He didn’t buy expensive things, but even watching from the side, his eye for finding materials was formidable,” and remembered him fondly as “a man I miss.”

(Ken Kayahara, nonfiction writer / “Book Lovers of the Old-Book District” #1, Hon no Machi, May 2026 issue)

Kugao Fukuda (1924–1999) Born in Tokyo. Graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Hosei University. Part-time lecturer at Nihon Fukushi University. He brought his wide-ranging, meticulously documented knowledge to bear not only on Taisho-era literature but also on popular fiction. On Sadao Yasunari, whom he regarded as a mentor from afar, the Sadao Yasunari Literary Criticism Editorial Committee, which carried on Fukuda’s long-cherished wish, has published Yasunari Sadao: Sono Hito to Shigoto (Sadao Yasunari: The Man and His Work) (Fuji Shuppan).

▶Read #2: “I Read Catalogs Across, Not Down”: Shintaro Takahashi

Ken Kayahara
Nonfiction writer. He writes on the history of publishing and thought in modern Japan. He is currently writing the series “Book Lovers of the Old-Book District” for Hon no Machi.

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This article was published in the May 2026 issue (Vol. 13) of Hon no Machi, the community salon magazine of Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho. You can read the full text, along with the other articles, in the PDF.

▶Read the May 2026 issue of Hon no Machi (PDF, in Japanese)

Founded in 1980, Hon no Machi brings you the latest from Book Town every month, together with Jimbocho’s bookstores, publishers, cafés and galleries.

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