Mapping the Intellectual Landscape: Bookstores and the Book towns in the Late Era
Mapping the Intellectual Landscape: Bookstores and the Book towns in the Late Era

Summary/Abstract: As modernization transformed nineteenth-century Japan in dramatic ways, the socio-economic changes that were engendered opened up anew world for intellectuals. The acquisition of books was a key part of this world, not only for gaining knowledge but also as part of the social activity associated with intellectuals. Consequently, the sites of physical and social space dedicated to books – bookstores and book towns – took on great importance.This article attempts to briefly discuss the role of these two locales of print culture in the intellectual world of late Meiji Japan, drawing out some of the connections among places, people and books that shaped the lives of contemporary intellectuals. It introduces some of the era’s noted bookstores and the town of Kanda Jinbochō, which today remains Japan’s premier book town.

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