Series and Essays from Hon no Machi, Jimbocho’s Book Town Magazine

Essays, interviews and walks from the monthly magazine Hon no Machi, now in English. New installments are added as each issue comes out; installments not yet online can be read in the PDF editions (in Japanese) on our Back issues page.

My Apprenticeship in Old Books

Inuhiko Yomota (comparative literature)　Half a century of memories of the books and people met in Jimbocho’s antiquarian and foreign-language bookstores.

• Why Visit a Foreign Bookstore When You Can Buy Books Online? Inuhiko Yomota on Kitazawa Bookstore in Jimbocho
• “Not Worthy to Tie Their Shoelaces”: Inuhiko Yomota Meets His Younger Self on a Secondhand Bookshop Shelf

Book Lovers of the Old-Book District

Ken Kayahara (nonfiction writer)　Portraits of the independent collectors who haunted the Tokyo Kosho Kaikan week after week and unearthed rare material.

• The Man Called “Fukuda the Exhaustive Searcher”: The Legend of Book Lover Kugao Fukuda of Kanda’s Old-Book District
• “I Read Catalogs Across, Not Down”: A Gakushuin Professor Emeritus and His Book-Hunting Method in Kanda

The People Who Weave Book Town

Rin Mizuki (interviews and text)　Interviews with the people who sustain the town’s bookstores — including a three-part interview with Sanseido Bookstore president Takao Kamei.

• A Bookstore Is a Door to the World: Sanseido Bookstore President Takao Kamei on a “Fresh Start at 70 Percent” in Jimbocho
• The Future of Bookstores Lies in “Multiplication”: Sanseido President Takao Kamei on Building the New Jimbocho Main Store with His Staff
• “A Bookstore Is the Town’s Entrance”: Sanseido President Takao Kamei on the New Kanda-Jimbocho Main Store

Engraved Memories

Gen Yamanaka (printmaker)　The printmaker behind Hon no Machi’s covers looks back on his path from boy manga artist to woodblock printmaker.

• “A Print Is Half a Picture”: Printmaker Gen Yamanaka’s 1970s at Tokyo University of the Arts

From the Study of an International History Detective

Tetsuro Kato (professor emeritus, Hitotsubashi University)　Secret files and old photographs lead into the mysteries of modern history.

• On the Desk Where Trotsky Was Assassinated: The Mexico of Japanese Stage Director Seki Sano

A Mini Theater with a Café and Bookshelves

Tadashi Koyama (filmmaker and mystery scholar)　Films and books, discussed together — Jimbocho as a “hybrid town” where you can read, watch and drink coffee.

• “Like a Zombie Story”: High-School Girls Find a New Kind of Fear in Hitchcock’s The Birds

Curtain Calls in Full Bloom

Hiroshi Takahagi (director, Setagaya Public Theatre)　A veteran of public theater on the stage productions worth seeing now.

• Jin Rock Lime: Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler Reborn as a Modern Rock-Band Drama

Notebook of Sounds

Marsha Lin (music journalist)　Opera, orchestras and festivals: memorable performances and the music that connects people.

• Cherry Blossoms and Wagner in Ueno: Maestro Marek Janowski’s Farewell to the Tokyo-Harusai at 87

My Golden Age of Cinema

Yasutaka Tarumi (film scholar)　The films of 1977–86 that a young film lover watched in Oita and Tokyo (8 installments).

• Rocky at an All-Night Screening: A Film Lover’s Golden Age, from Oita to Jimbocho
• House (1977): Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Startling Debut Feature

Living in Book Town

Contributions　Memories of Jimbocho, Kanda and Ochanomizu from people who have worked, studied and lived here.

• A Yukio Mishima Manuscript for Two-Thirds of a Bonus: At the Glass Case of Komiyama Shoten, Jimbocho

Contributions

Walks and discoveries from writers who love this town.

• A Colombian-Born Writer Walks Kanda’s “Layers of Time”: Kanda Matsuya, Kissa Hotaka, Record-sha and Isseido Bookstore