Where Tokyo's used bookstores live -- More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (Harper Collins)

Days at The Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa first introduced Tokyo’s Jimbocho district, an improbable world of shops specializing in used books. Art books, playscripts, philosophy texts, maps, literature (classic and contemporary) and books bound in the traditional Japanese way are sold in  ancient wood buildings. Inside stores, books are tightly packed from floor-to-ceiling. Outside, carts  in front of the store contain bargains! Like The Strand in NYC, tourists, as well as young people who may not be readers, look at surprising titles and for a couple dollars, or a hundred yen, may give it a try. Browsing books may be a quicker transaction, bur post pandemic, the tactile appeal, mysterious dedication promise adventures for a pittance, no delivery needed.  

In More Days at The Morisaki Bookshop,.Takako, who first came to her Uncle’s shop three years before, is now a reader. She glances at the carts of mostly modern novels, and greets her Uncle Satoru.. Inside, the shop hasn’t changed. So many books maybe five people could be in it at the same time! . She remembers her younger self, disgusted by the dank smell of books, clearing out a sleeping space on the floor above. Then she was a broken-hearted refugee from the world, only interested in sleep. She was invited to stay long as she wanted. 

Now she welcomes the tranquility, of this special district, the shop that has nurtured her family for generations. She is happy to use her vacation time to help Satoru and her aunt Momiko. The pleasure to be in the resounding quiet  of words!  The specialty of the store in Modern Literature, a subject she previously had little interest in and less time to pursue. Once she wondered about her family’s holding onto the ship. Her uncle was a serious character but it was a property with value. Now she understood.

With  responsibility for the shop, she carefully practices the rituals of opening, waiting on customers, closing as her Uncle expects. In the morning set-up, and greetings to other owners.  Away from her laptop and job, she breathes-in perfect quiet. The the shop’s few regulars come in, each with a mission nurtured by her father. Old men bought used books and then there was a young one. He had exchanged word with her Uncle, who was less friendly but now he talked to her.   Asked her for recommendations?

He was sometimes among the regulars, at a small restaurant where  her aunt, and a jazz-playing coffee shop om the neighborhood, where she met a serious literary waitress.. Books entered her real life, after her husband’s first suggestions, She finds them by chance or is given them. It seems these classics  evoke in her what she had not realized she felt or thought. Shy and self critical, she finds friends and is able to suggest appropriate  books,  even the young man whose feelings are opaque to her. 

Through the books and the routines of setting up, Takao gains a place in this pattern. Mysteries abound, such as the disappearance of her aunt. and return five years later?  The bookstore keeps secrets she discovers, along with her family’s history. 

New York City had a wealth of used bookstores, some sold prints, etchings and records. I think Skyline was one of the last. “18 miles of books” is a motto of NY’s enduring Strand Bookstore, a family owned store founded in 1927, where used and new books still share space with  readers. New books have expanded, used have shrunk with emptier shelves/ It’s long been  a trend.  Yet the objective in  Independent stores, including 3 Lives and Company, is still to provide access and selection. Browsing in communion with others in a space filled with books is a rare pleasure. 

For Takako, finding a classic title could open a vast unknown worlde. I remember the Strand’s rare book room on their top floor. In a glass case were first editions, such as The Grapes of Wrath, an early Warhol book. Browsing, I once got a 1920′s Congressional Record and a portfolio of sketches of dresses made for “Lord and Taylor.. When the people who ran the room  quoted a price, you could bargain a little. These  were gifts, I didn’t know existed.  

Such valuables now end up at Housing Works or trash?  When large chain stores first emerged, they coexisted with smaller neighborhood stores. Readers met, lost themselves in books  and ordered! Three Lives & Company in NYC is still around. Of course the main seller of used books is Amazon. An online business compatible with the founder’s origins  selling “remainders” (books unsold by stores that couldn’t be returned went for bottom price.) Bottom fishing is Amazon’s thrill?. 

Despite the neural addictions of Amazon and streaming services, I believe humans retain the joy of finding themselves, unexpectedly, in a strange book. Tokyo, anyone?

S.W.