"A History of Browsing"
Writer Profile
Masaki Kobayashi
Other : Director of the Modern Publishing Research Centers and InstitutesKeio University alumni
Masaki Kobayashi
Other : Director of the Modern Publishing Research Centers and InstitutesKeio University alumni
2025/07/16
In April, I published a book titled "A History of Browsing" from Hayakawa Shobo's "Hayakawa Shinsho" series.
"Browsing" at bookstores is something every Japanese person takes for granted. However, people returning from abroad during the Showa era said that this custom seems to be unique to Japan. On the other hand, the act of entering a bookstore and flipping through books has existed abroad for a long time. What does this mean?
A bookstore appears in the NHK Taiga drama "Berabou." However, Edo-period bookstores used a "za-uri" (seated selling) style, so you couldn't browse while standing. This raises the question: "browsing" must have started somewhere, sometime in Japan after the Meiji era. My book, "A History of Browsing," explores this. Please visit a bookstore and browse through this book.
But why was I able to become conscious of a Japanese custom that everyone takes for granted and doesn't notice?
In 1989, I worked as a student assistant for night-time browsing at the Juku library (then the Mita Information Center). There, I noticed the problem of missing books. I used this as material for my graduation thesis under the guidance of Professor Shunsaku Tamura in the Library and Information Science major, which I entered as a transfer student. At that time, I realized there was almost no prior literature on the problem of shoplifting in bookstores.
By the way, in my previous job as a reference librarian, there was a technique called the "simultaneous occurrence search method." This is a technique where, if you are researching a certain subject and cannot find much literature, you search for a different subject that occurs at the same time. Initially, I couldn't find much literature on bookstore shoplifting, so I looked into "browsing" as a related simultaneous occurrence.
I have been a lover of old books since I majored in Western history, and around that time, I was awakened to book research after reading Junichiro Kida's "Walking through the Used Book District." Forty years later, in the April issue of "Modern Publishing Research" which I publish, I put together a special feature titled "All Things Books: The World of Junichiro Kida." Hiroshi Aramata contributed a lengthy piece, and both of them are Keio University alumni. This makes me think that I, too, might have been at the tail end of the Juku's bibliophilia. I also have fond memories of the late Professor Nobukazu Mushanokoji showing me "kawari-ehon" (toy books) during a class on the 5th floor of the library.
*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.