Hon no Machi — Jimbocho Book Town Guide
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Jimbocho is often called the world’s greatest district of secondhand bookstores. Along Yasukuni-dori Avenue and the side streets, antiquarian booksellers specializing in everything from Japanese classics to ukiyo-e prints stand beside big new-book stores. This guide introduces the bookstores among Hon no Machi’s member shops, with the stories we have published about them.
Contents: New-book stores Antiquarian and used bookstores Stories of books and book lovers Tips for browsing
New-book stores
Sanseido Bookstore, Kanda-Jimbocho Main Store
The main store reopened in March 2026. In a three-part interview, president Takao Kamei talks about the new store, the idea of “multiplying” books with other things, and why he calls a bookstore “the town’s entrance.”
More in the interview: Part 2 Part 3
Book House Cafe
A children’s bookstore with some 10,000 books centered on picture books, a café in the middle of the shelves, a gallery and a hideaway bar.
- Tokyodo Bookstore — New books. Highly regarded as a general bookstore for specialist books, with a reliable selection for serious readers. (1-17 Kanda-Jimbocho)
- Uchiyama Shoten — Books on China and Asia. Books, magazines and newspapers published in China, all in one place, plus books on Asia — a long-established specialist. (1-15 Kanda-Jimbocho / Closed: Mondays and national holidays)
Antiquarian and used bookstores
Isseido Bookstore
Trusted for a century, the antiquarian bookstore that represents Kanda, in a building from 1931. Keyaki Shoten’s Ryosuke Sakota, who joined Isseido in 1973, recalls his first days in “Jimbocho and Me.”
Also: An Isseido newcomer at the booksellers’ auction
@Wonder
Used books across SF, mystery, fantasy, film, literature, the humanities and American comics — including a shop in a former pachinko parlor.
- Yagi Shoten — Japanese language & literature. Literary works, criticism and research from ancient to modern times — a specialist trusted by scholars. (1-1 Kanda-Jimbocho / Closed: Sundays)
- Seishindo Shoten — Classical books & calligraphy. Specialists in Chinese classics and Japanese woodblock-printed books, with a wide range of Edo-period books and calligraphy materials, plus academic books in the humanities. (2-24 Kanda-Jimbocho / Closed: Sundays)
- Hara Shobo — Divination, Chinese classics & ukiyo-e prints. The first floor has one of the best selections of books on divination and Chinese classics; the second floor, ukiyo-e prints and a lavish salon. (2-3 Kanda-Jimbocho / Closed: Sundays, Mondays and national holidays)
- Kosho Center Takayama Honten — Used books (general). Complete works, art books and dictionaries to local history, Noh and utai chanting, and martial arts books. (2-3 Kanda-Jimbocho / Closed: Open every day)
- Bohemian’s Guild — Autographs, signed & limited editions, prints. The first floor has old books centered on art, design, photography and architecture; the second is a gallery for exhibitions and original artworks. (1-1 Kanda-Jimbocho / Closed: Open every day)
Stories of books and book lovers
Jimbocho is also a town of readers and collectors. These essays and series from Hon no Machi tell their stories.
- Inuhiko Yomota returns to Kitazawa Bookstore, a foreign-book shop, after half a century
- Inuhiko Yomota finds his own books on a secondhand shelf
- “Fukuda the Exhaustive Searcher,” a legendary book lover of the old-book district
- A professor emeritus who read antiquarian catalogs “across, not down”
- A Yukio Mishima manuscript found at Komiyama Shoten
Tips for browsing
- Many antiquarian bookstores are closed on Sundays (some also on Mondays and holidays). Weekdays and Saturdays are the best time to browse.
- Most shops specialize in a field. Check the genre above and head for the shops that match your interests.
- Every autumn the Kanda Used Book Festival lines Yasukuni-dori with bookshelves; see the events calendar.
- Take a break at a kissaten — Jimbocho’s coffee houses are where readers open their new finds.
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