[Special Feature: Encountering Books] Naoyuki Seki: "Business Trip Antiquarian Book Fairs" and Encounters with Books

2023/08/08

I have been involved in the business of purchasing and selling antiquarian books as a company employee for over twenty years. From that experience, I would like to introduce how I encounter antiquarian books and how I have provided venues for customers to encounter them.

Antiquarian bookstores that are members of the antiquarian book guilds in each prefecture can participate in antiquarian and used book markets (exchange meets) sponsored by the guilds, where they can both sell (list) and buy (bid). In particular, the exchange meets sponsored by the Tokyo Antiquarian Booksellers Guild are divided into specialties such as Japanese and Chinese classics, Western books, art-related materials, and historical documents. Because items gather from all over the country, many dealers gather for both listing and bidding. Many antiquarian bookstores often use these exchange meets for purchasing and sales.

On the other hand, while Maruzen-Yushodo, where I work, also participates in exchange meets as a guild member bookstore, our style is different from the purchasing and sales of general antiquarian bookstores. Our core business is the external sales of antiquarian books to research institutions such as universities, libraries, corporations, and government offices. For about the last 10 years, we have operated the "World Antique Book Plaza" (WABP), an antiquarian bookstore within the Maruzen Nihonbashi store, which sells to the general public, but overall, it can be said that our focus is on external sales.

As a derivative of such external sales activities, we hold "Business Trip Antiquarian Book Fairs." "Business Trip Antiquarian Book Fair" is a term I coined, but with the cooperation of the sales department, it is an exhibition and sale of antiquarian books held for a short period by renting a space.

These are mainly held by renting part of Maruzen stores in various regions, and I personally have often been in charge of Nagoya and Fukuoka. We exhibit and sell antiquarian books in glass cases in the event spaces of each store, and many customers stop to take a look. Also, because we sometimes exhibit "treasure-like" rare books, local TV stations have come to cover the event, and being featured on the news has greatly helped attract customers. It has become a valuable opportunity for not only external sales customers but also general customers to make purchases.

A customer who remains in my memory is someone who purchased Hayashi Shihei's "Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu" (Illustrated Description of Three Countries) during a business trip antiquarian book fair in Fukuoka. This book is a geographical work written by Hayashi Shihei in Tenmei 5 (1785), consisting of a text with illustrations explaining the customs and other aspects of the three countries adjacent to Japan (Korea, Ryukyu, and Ezo) and nearby islands, along with five attached maps. When we exhibited this as the highlight of the time, a member of the general public showed interest. That person was a local practitioner who did not usually purchase antiquarian books, but purchasing this book triggered them to start collecting antiquarian books and old maps. Being able to convey the charm of collecting antiquarian books in this way is one of the true pleasures of this job.

I am sometimes asked how we obtain these antiquarian books. In the case of Maruzen-Yushodo, the proportion of purchases from overseas is overwhelmingly higher than from within Japan. We make purchases by carefully examining catalogs and individual notices from overseas antiquarian bookstores. We also sometimes visit antiquarian bookstores in Europe and the United States, as well as antiquarian and rare book fairs, to make purchases.

One memory of a purchase: When I visited an antiquarian book fair in London about a dozen years ago, an antiquarian bookstore owner asked me, "As a Japanese person, would you be interested in something like this?" and showed me a small booklet. Large and small Chinese characters were arranged neatly, and prices were printed. It was not cheap for something of about 20 pages, but I ordered it and, after returning to Japan and investigating, found it to be a type specimen book from the "Mission Press" (Meihua Shuguan), a printing house based in Shanghai that was active mainly during the late Edo period. The press was established by the American Presbyterian Mission and published Christian books for Chinese people. Extant type specimen books from this printing house are extremely rare. I delivered this book to an institution, but since then, researching the printing and publishing culture of modern Asia, centered on the publications of this printing house, has become one of my interests as an antiquarian book dealer.

I would like to conclude with a story about an encounter with an antiquarian book related to publishing culture that is also deeply connected to Keio University.

When I participated in the aforementioned exchange meet one day, Sugita Genpaku's "Rangaku Hajime" (The Beginnings of Dutch Studies, published in Meiji 2) was being offered. This book is a woodblock-printed book that was published through the mediation of Fukuzawa Yukichi, who recognized its importance after a manuscript was discovered in the late Edo period; it is rare for it to appear in the antiquarian book market. I bid on it, but I was unable to win the auction at that time. Later, after a business trip antiquarian book fair in the Kansai region, I visited an antiquarian bookstore with which I have a close relationship. When I mentioned over tea that I had missed out on that book, they surprisingly said, "If it's that book, we have it here too." When I had them search the warehouse, it was indeed "Rangaku Hajime." Furthermore, it appeared to be a proofreading copy with red ink annotations by Yoshida Kensuke, a disciple of Fukuzawa Yukichi, which overjoyed me. It was just after I had held a business trip antiquarian book fair at "Chienamiki" (operated by Maruzen-Yushodo and others), an intellectual and educational facility in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture. I realized that Genpaku was a physician of the Obama Domain, which ruled Tsuruga, and I felt a strange sense of fate in this coincidence.