“I Read Catalogs Across, Not Down”: A Gakushuin Professor Emeritus and His Book-Hunting Method in Kanda | Book Lovers of the Old-Book District #2

“I read catalogs across, not down.” Scanning only the author names and publication years, and ordering before his rivals could: this is the story of how Shintaro Takahashi, professor emeritus at Gakushuin Women’s College, read antiquarian booksellers’ catalogs, and of his office piled high with old books. (From “Book Lovers of the Old-Book District” #2, Hon no Machi, June 2026 issue)

Aishokai, Shumiten, Gloria-kai

The dealer groups that hold used-book fairs on Fridays and Saturdays at the Tokyo Kosho Kaikan (Tokyo Antiquarian Booksellers’ Hall) line up roughly like this: Aishokai, Shumiten, Shosoten, Wayokai, Gloria-kai, Shinkokai, Koshokai and Shitamachi Shoyukai. When I was attending Chuo University in Kanda, the Kosho Kaikan—now a fine modern building—was a single-story building with tatami-mat floors. There were no customers in school uniforms. Shintaro Takahashi was making his way to the Kosho Kaikan in those days too. “It was 1952, a time when the word ‘working student’ still meant something. From the time I worked as a night-shift assistant at a certain university library in Kanda, I began to frequent the old single-story Kosho Kaikan at Surugadai-shita, and joined the so-called book lovers and fellow researchers with a taste for miscellaneous old books, who were forever rummaging for materials on the flat display tables set out in the inner courtyard before opening time” (“A Senior Alumnus of the University of Used Books,” Azumino: Matsumoto Kappei Tsuito Bunshu [Azumino: Memorial Essays for Kappei Matsumoto], 1998).

“I Read Catalogs Across, Not Down”

I had a chat with Mr. Takahashi for the first time in a long while at the “Gathering to Talk About Kyoson Tsuchida,” organized by Toshiro Ueki and held at the Gakushi Kaikan in Kanda-Nishikicho. His buying was far from ordinary—he was said to go on used-book buying sprees. First he would head to a book fair. On the way home he would look in at the secondhand bookshops around Kanda. Back home, he would speed-read the catalogs mailed to him by antiquarian booksellers and pick up the phone. He must not fall behind his rivals.

“I read catalogs across, not down.” Catalogs usually list the title, author, year of publication and price, in that order, but he would focus only on the author and year columns and run his eye across them horizontally (“Reading Antiquarian Book Catalogs—or, How to Order,” Hosho Gekkan, March 1992). With this almost superhuman technique he would place his orders in one go.

I once visited his office at the university. When I opened the door, there was a desk and a chair, after a fashion, but all around them old books were piled high. It could hardly be called a professor’s office; nor was it a library stack. It had become a warehouse for used-book stock. And yet, when I was invited to his home in Numabukuro and treated to a meal cooked by his wife, the tatami room of about twelve mats I was shown into had not a single book in it.

The “Takahashi Selection,” Published Ten Years After His Death

In the course of reflecting on writers’ responsibility for the war, Mr. Takahashi researched the playwright Juro Miyoshi, and he wrote the serial “Zasshi Tansaku Noto” (Notes on Magazine Hunting) for Nihon Kosho Tsushin from October 1991 and “Shusho Nisshi” (A Book-Collecting Diary) for Hosho Gekkan from June 1993. His appetite also extended to sources on Maresuke Nogi, Seizaburo Ogura and Tetsu Takahashi. To give just a brief sample of his book-buying sprees: “From Rhodes Shobo in Kobe I obtained Dokusho to Bunken (Reading and Literature), the wartime retitled edition of Nihon Kosho Tsushin, and Kosho Geppo (Antiquarian Book Monthly), published by Kotensha in Numazu.” “From Eirakuya in Owariasahi I got hold of performance programs related to Juro Miyoshi and theater programs for film adaptations of his work.” His book hunting reached every corner of the country.

Hiroshi Tarumi, in his tribute to Mr. Takahashi, added of his truly enormous library: “For his sake and for the sake of the books, I earnestly pray that the time will come for them to be reborn in the hands of the people who need them” (“The Death and Rebirth of a Book Collector,” Furuhon-zuki [Fond of Old Books], privately printed, 2004).

The “Takahashi Selection,” intended “to let books and magazines themselves speak the truths and fictions of ‘modern Japanese literature’ through a vast body of old books,” was published by Kasama Shoin in 2014, ten years after his death, in three volumes: Kindai Nihon Bungaku no Shuken (The Peripheries of Modern Japanese Literature), Zasshi Tansaku Noto: Senchu, Sengo-shi kara no Kensho (Notes on Magazine Hunting: An Examination of Wartime and Postwar Magazines) and Shusho Nisshi / Shishi “Lien” no Koto (A Book-Collecting Diary / On the Poetry Magazine Lien). In addition, a memorial volume for Mr. Takahashi, Mori to Sakura Namiki no Kage de: Gakushuin de no Saigetsu (In the Shade of the Woods and the Cherry Trees: Years at Gakushuin) (Kasama Shoin), was published in 2004. I contributed a eulogy to it. It also includes a memorial essay by his former student, His Imperial Highness Prince Akishino.

(Ken Kayahara, nonfiction writer / “Book Lovers of the Old-Book District” #2, Hon no Machi, June 2026 issue)

Shintaro Takahashi (1932–2003) Graduated from the Department of Japanese Literature, Faculty of Letters, Gakushuin University. Professor emeritus at Gakushuin Women’s College. His work includes editing Gendai Nihon Bungaku Dai-Nenpyo (A Comprehensive Chronology of Modern Japanese Literature) (Meiji Shoin, 1968–1971). His library was donated to Gakushuin Women’s College in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, and to Onomichi University in Hiroshima Prefecture.

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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 June 2026 issue (Vol. 14) 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.

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