At the beginning of the Showa 40s (late 1960s), I was born in Tokyo and grew up in Shinjuku Ward. My hometown is in the Ushigome area of Shinjuku Ward, and my family runs a printing-related company there. The Ushigome area includes towns such as Waseda, Ichigaya, and Kagurazaka, and there are still many printing-related companies, factories, and publishers in the region today.
As I was growing up, I lived on the company’s premises from when I was born until the beginning of my second year of high school. My great-grandfather started the printing business in the Taisho period (early 1910s), and my grandfather took over the business and ran a printing company. At that time, the company, factory, and residence coexisted on a large site, and there were about five houses for the families of my grandfather, uncles, and aunts. If you include my cousins, there were about twenty of us. Even though each family lived in separate houses, the total number of family members was large. It would be unthinkable today, but at that time, I was living as a member of a large family in the middle of Shinjuku, Tokyo. This living situation continued until the end of the Showa 50s (early 1980s).
Many people were always working on the premises, many cars were coming in and out, and two forklifts were moving regularly. As a child, my family often told me I could not play on the premises during work hours because it was dangerous. As you can see, I was raised in a company environment, not a typical family home environment.
Although we were once members of a large family, we all went our separate ways and lived different lives, and now we no longer have a chance to see each other any more. It’s been so many years since I left my grandfather’s property, but I still remember “the sound of the printing machine turning” and “the smell of ink” at that time.
Table of Contents
A Neighborhood Bookstore In Town
Since I was a child, I was blessed to grow up in an environment where “I can always get the books I want to read.” This was a very fortunate circumstance. I was raised in a printing company, so I had many opportunities to read printed materials and listen to the conversations among the creators of the text, writing, layout, etc. Even at home, we subscribed to newspapers from four different publishers, so I always had things to read. However, it wasn’t all that fun for a child, to be honest. Because adult writing was still difficult to read, and the conversations were too technical to understand. I wanted to read more fun and exciting books for my age. That’s when I came across manga (Japanese comic books).
At that time, there were three bookstores within walking distance of my house. These are so-called “neighborhood bookstores” in town, and I found Fujiko Fujio’s “Doraemon” at the bookstore closest to my house. From then on, I became a big fan of Fujiko Fujio, especially his Doraemon comic books; starting with the first volume I bought, I treasured them as my precious manga collection.
Kinokuniya Bookstore
After I became a junior high school student, I often went to Kinokuniya bookstore in Shinjuku by myself. It was because there were many books of various kinds that one could rarely find at neighborhood bookstores in town.
From the first to the seventh floor, the Kinokuniya Bookstore building was filled with books, including magazines, paperback books, illustrated books, reference books, dictionaries, academic books, art books, photo books, general and professional books, and foreign books of all kinds. The first floor alone was large enough to house several neighborhood bookstores in town, yet it went all the way up to the seventh floor. Even school or district libraries could not match the number of books available.
When I went to Kinokuniya Bookstore, I first took a quick look at the large number of magazines of various kinds. Next, I looked at the paperback books. The sheer variety of paperback books was overwhelming. I looked around, found something that interested me, picked it up, and if I liked it, I bought it. Each time, I made a new discovery and encountered something unknown.
Then, I wandered around the store to the third, fourth, and above floors in search of new book encounters in addition to the paperback books. The routine was almost the same, but I got a different feeling each time. Sometimes, I suddenly had a flash of inspiration. In addition to new book encounters, I think Kinokuniya Bookstore was also a special place for me to get inspiration.
From Overseas to Jimbocho
Right after I started my second year of high school, I went to the U.S. to study English at high school in Arkansas. After graduating from high school, I went to university and then to graduate school in Texas and lived there for a long time. After entering the workforce, I lived not only in the U.S. but also in Mexico for a time. When I reached my late forties, I decided to return to Shinjuku again. It was in the Heisei 20s (2010s).
Since returning to Shinjuku, I started to go to Jimbocho more often than Shinjuku on weekends and holidays. It was because Jimbocho was close to Shinjuku and had a secondhand bookstore district with an overwhelming number of bookstores.
Even in the U.S. or Mexico, I still frequented bookstores on weekends. However, the volume of books they carry was far less than what Kinokuniya Bookstore (in Shinjuku) or Sanseido Bookstore (in Jimbocho) had. And I couldn’t even imagine there was a city with dozens of bookstores in the U.S. or Mexico.
There are just so many secondhand bookstores in Jimbocho. As for new books, there are also small and large bookstores, such as Sanseido Bookstore and Tokyodo Bookstore, so you can walk around all day long and not get bored. The Jimbocho area has become my second “place of inspiration” after the Kinokuniya Bookstore.
Printing Enrichment
The enrichment brought about by printing has deeply permeated Shinjuku, where I grew up, and Jimbocho and the surrounding neighborhoods. Thanks to printing, printed materials were born and permeated the world, especially in the form of books. As a result, books in all fields, such as comics, illustrated books, paperbacks, magazines, academic books, etc., were created, and bookstores that handled those printed materials were expanded.
At the same time, various textbooks and specialized books became essential to further our knowledge and learning, and schools were built to teach learning by using those books.
In addition to deepening our so-called knowledge and learning, magazines, books, flyers, posters, and other printed materials led us into the fields of art and entertainment, such as painting, music, movies, and novels, and made us realize the importance of “enjoying life.” Also, these printed materials gave us a pat on the back by saying, “There are many different paths in life, and you should follow your own path.” Since then, our hearts must have gradually become more affluent as time goes by. Consequently, this city, as a whole, must have been extensively developed, thanks to the enrichment provided by printing.
So, why was printing necessary in the first place? In a word, it was to preserve what we want to convey. People wanted to protect something meaningful, not just verbally but in some other form. Therefore, so-called “paper” was invented to preserve such things.
In the old days, people wrote down what they wanted to say on paper by hand. Of course, you could only handwrite one book at a time, which was very time-consuming and labor-intensive.
However, with the invention of the printing machine, the time and effort required to produce a book were significantly reduced. With the development of printing technology, the number of copies that could be printed at once increased.
As the books became more widely available to a broader audience and reached more people, it became possible to “get the message across even more.”
In order to “preserve the message” of knowledge, wisdom, intellect, learning, art, etc., books, textbooks, magazines, and various other printed materials were created through printing. Then, bookstores were established to deliver those printed materials to people.
Then came the schools, movie theaters, museums, other facilities, and the city where people gathered. The city has become what it is today by transmitting “messages” from one person to another. I believe such a city is rare even in the world.
Tell The Story of This City
Starting with printing, books and other printed materials stimulate people’s intellect, and people gather together to pursue further intellect. The enrichment brought by printing creates interactions among people and becomes a driving force to “convey what they want to convey even more,” and the city develops even further. People and human intellect had already gathered in this city, even in the age without the Internet. This city has a history, and people’s connections have spread beyond time, across borders and overseas.
I grew up in this city, having opportunities to interact with intellect that I took for granted. However, now that I sincerely think this is a special place, I profoundly believe that I grew up in a privileged environment. I have visited many places abroad on business and in my private time, but I think no other city has developed based on printing like this one.
Now is the age of the Internet. Information is overflowing on the Internet, so anyone can quickly obtain it. However, can such information be called true intellect? Additionally, although a new kind of interaction between people, completed solely on the Internet, has emerged, people’s face-to-face interactions have become less and less common overall.
I do not deny the Internet society; in fact, I welcome it. However, it is a very biased idea to label all analog things as old and think all new digital things are convenient and the best. Analog may be inferior to digital in terms of convenience, but there are some advantages that are unique to analog that cannot be replaced by digital.
This “city,” which began with analog printing technology and has been cultivated by people, is an asset to the people. We should continue developing this city by re-evaluating analog technology together with digital technology.
Once again, I want to tell the world about this remarkable “city.” By doing so, we can promote more interactions among people, create new gatherings of knowledge and intellect, and lead to the city’s further development.