Hon no Machi December 2025 Issue (Vol. 8) — Now Available Free at Member Shops from November 10

Thank you, as always, for reading Hon no Machi. The leaves are turning, and the chill of the mornings and evenings tells us winter is drawing near.

The December issue (No. 8) of the monthly Hon no Machi was published on November 10.

Highlights of This Issue

Reading Shylock Through the Lens of Political Correctness

The second installment of Yasuo Hasebe’s “Encounters with the Classics” considers the ending of The Merchant of Venice from the standpoint of today’s “political correctness.”

Who Was the Model for Seicho Matsumoto’s Kyukei no Koya (A Spherical Wilderness)?

In the second installment of “From the Study of an International History Detective,” Tetsuro Kato digs into the mystery of the real-life model for a diplomat who appears in the novel.

ELLI’s Town Walks Visits Kissa Hotaka

A visit to a kissaten, a traditional Japanese coffee house, in front of Ochanomizu Station that is marking 70 years in business, introducing the owner’s family history and the history of the neighborhood.

▶ Read “Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks” #7: Kissa Hotaka on the web

Contents of This Issue

• Encounters with the Classics (2): Reading Shylock Through the Lens of Political Correctness / Yasuo Hasebe
• My Apprenticeship in Old Books (5) / Inuhiko Yomota
• From the Study of an International History Detective (2) / Tetsuro Kato
• Jimbocho and Me (7): Tokumanden / Ryosuke Sakota
• A New Door: “Shin’s Little Lamb Library” / Naoko Sakamoto
• New Whimsical Journal of Art (History) (8): Taijiro and Yojiro / Hiroaki Goto
• In Search of Yojiro Shimamura’s Paintings (3) / Naoko Shimamura
• Going Down the Slope / Kyosuke Sato
• Notebook of Sounds (3): What Maestro Muti Poured into the Music / Marsha Lin
• Photographer ELLI’s Town Walks (7): Kissa Hotaka / Eri Ito
• A Short Biography of Shuhei Fujisawa (8): Fourteen Short Stories from His Unknown Years / Katsuo Sawada
• There’s No Hobby as Wonderful as Jazz! (72) / Kazuyuki Iida
• A Soprano’s Stroll Through Jimbocho: Mahler and Hampson / Sayu Kogure
• Postwar Scenes Around Jimbocho (1): Matsumoto-tei / Shigeru Owada
• Early Photographs of Edo Castle and Its Surroundings (75) / Atsushi Shimizu

Cover: Masako Takezawa, “The Nutcracker: March”

Publication Details

• Issue: Monthly Hon no Machi, December 2025 issue (Vol. 8)
• Publication date: November 10, 2025
• Cover price: ¥150 (tax incl.) — distributed free at member shops
• Publisher: Hon no Machi Editorial Office
• Where to find it: Member shops and other locations in Kanda, Jimbocho and Ochanomizu (list of member shops and pickup points)

The PDF of this issue is available on note.

Earlier issues can be read on our Back Issues page. *Exhibitions, events, shop information, advertisements and other details are as of the original publication date.

日本語で読む — Read this article in Japanese