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In Jimbocho’s old-book district, Book House Cafe is a children’s bookstore popular with parents and kids and with women out together. A café sits in the middle, surrounded by picture books; there’s a gallery at the back, and a hideaway bar, Lilypad, opens onto the back street. Photographer ELLI spoke with Yoshiko Imamoto, owner since 2017. (From installment 6 of “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks,” Hon no Machi, November 2025 issue)
“I believe a town where children come has a future.”
—Owner Yoshiko Imamoto
This is the sixth walk by photographer ELLI, who says she “had almost no connection to Jimbocho.” In a bookstore district with a strong image as a place for teens and adults, she visited Book House Cafe, where many of the customers are parents with children or women out together.
A town where children come has a future
The shop: a café in the very heart of a bookstore
Right in the middle of a bookstore lined with picture books and plush toys of their characters, there is a café. People who seem to be regulars chat over tea or pick out books from the shelves built around the café space. It’s a wonderfully cozy place, like an oasis in the bookstore district.
Highlights: picture-book shelves and a hideaway bar
The room at the back of the store and the second-floor gallery are also available as rental spaces, and cultural and artistic events such as concerts and readings are held there throughout the year. In 2019 the bar Lilypad opened too, with a discreet entrance on the back street.
The owner: keeping a children’s bookstore alive
In the mid-2000s, as the spread of the internet began to hurt bookstores, a children’s bookstore opened here, the forerunner of today’s shop. Yoshiko Imamoto, who by a twist of fate became its owner in 2017, remodeled it and created a new kind of bookstore: Book House Cafe.
It wasn’t that she wanted to diversify the business, Imamoto says; all she has ever thought about, working flat out, is keeping a children’s bookstore going.
“With the internet everywhere, more and more people don’t buy books or go to bookstores to browse. That’s exactly why I want to cherish a place where children can pick up picture books and choose them for themselves.”
Shop information
▶Shop page (map and related articles)
Book House Cafe (new children’s books)
Address: 2-5 Kanda-Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-6261-6177
With a café. The bar Lilypad has its entrance on the back street
Nearest station: Jimbocho
▶View on Google Maps
*Address, phone and closing days are from the Hon no Machi member shop list (September 2026 issue). Hours and other details may change; please check with the shop before you visit.
Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks: All installments
▶See every installment and a map of the shops ELLI has visited on the series page
◀Previous: #5 @Wonder JG
▶Next: #7 Kissa Hotaka
#1 Luncheon
#2 The Adirondack Café
#3 Hasebe
#4 Toyodaen & Daisen
#5 @Wonder
#6 Book House Cafe (this article)
#7 Kissa Hotaka
#8 Mamekobo
#9 Banuken
#10 Asanoya
#11 Yamagataya Paper Shop
#12 Kissa Poupée
#13 Ochanomizu Hotel Shoryukan
#14 Kanda Awahei
#15 Daiki Shoe Store
#16 Sakaiya Sports
#17 Fuji Record Sha
Eri Ito (ELLI)
Photographer. In her Hon no Machi series “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks,” she visits shops in Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho every month.
This article introduces installment 6 of “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks” (photos and text by Eri Ito), published in the November 2025 issue (Vol. 7) of Hon no Machi, the community salon magazine of Kanda, Ochanomizu and Jimbocho.
▶Read the November 2025 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.
▶Back issues of our series are being published on our note page (in Japanese)
日本語で読む — Read this article in Japanese