Exploring Jinbōchō’s Secondhand Bookstores

Vendors line the sidewalks of Yasukuni-dōri at the Spring Secondhand Book Festival. They include some dealers who usually only do business online, like Komodo Books, which handles volumes related to topics such as film, manga, and anime. (© Nippon.com)

Sawaguchi Shoten’s Jinbōchō Store specializes in manga. (© Nippon.com)

A sign outside Ganshōdō Building Store advertises T-shirts, informing visitors that actress Anne Hathaway is among the customers to have picked one up. (© Nippon.com)

Takayama Honten is located on the first floor of Kanda Kosho Center Building. (© Nippon.com)

Ohya Shobō in Jinbōchō. (© Nippon.com)

The interior of Ohya Shobō with yōkai catalogues piled up to the right. (© Nippon.com)

The foreign books section on the second floor of Isseidō Shoten. The Japan shelf (bottom right) displays an 1856 edition of Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, a record of the voyage of Commodore Matthew Perry. (© Nippon.com)

Jimbōchō Book Center with Shinsendō Shoten on the second floor. (© Nippon.com)

Some of the goods for sale inside Shinsendō Shoten. (© Nippon.com)

Kitazawa Shoten displays a photograph (top right) of the store at the time it was managed by its founder, Kitazawa Yasaburō. (© Nippon.com)

The entrance to Book House Café. Kitazawa Shoten is on the second floor. (© Nippon.com)

Cats are the main theme at Anekawa Shoten. Customers who purchase books can receive covers for them with an original design by author Kumakura Tamami of a cat enjoying reading (bottom right). (© Nippon.com)

The exterior of Passage Solida. (© Nippon.com)

A look inside this innovative bookstore. (© Nippon.com)

Visitors from London at Takayama Honten. (© Nippon.com)

Courtesy Book Town Jimbou. Map of secondhand bookstores in Jinbōchō.