This is the official website of the Oya Soichi Library.
Located in Tokyo, the Oya Soichi Library is a unique libraryspecializing in Japanese magazines, from old to new. The library holdsover 800,000 Japanese magazines of 12,000 types dating from the 19thcentury to the present day, spanning the Edo, Meiji, Taisho, Showa, andHeisei Periods.
Unlike other Japanese libraries, we shelve mostly general-interestmagazines rather than magazines that are published for specificaudiences. Our collection includes, “Bungeishunju”, “an・an”, “Friday”,“Shukan Asahi”, “Sanpo no Tatsujin”, and “Number”, just to name a few.Although these magazines capture the attention of the public, offering awide range of articles and topics on computers, the Internet, manga,anime, popular characters, trends, fashion, earthquakes, nuclear power,etc., they are usually thrown away after being read. The Oya SoichiLibrary is most probably the only library of its kind as we house suchmagazines.
These magazines provide detailed information on traditional Japanese culture like ‘wabi-sabi’(aesthetic sensibility),‘bushido’(code of moral and honor developed among the samurai), ‘ninjutsu’(ninja techniques), and‘sadō’(tea ceremony). Other topics include Japanese food, pop culture, as well as subcultures such as ‘Japanimation’(Japanese animated cartoons),‘otaku’(people with obsessive interests,),‘kawaii’(cute), and ‘yurukyara’(mascot characters). Other articles may focus on famous Japanese sightseeing attractions such as ‘ryokan’(Japanese-style inns), ‘onsen’(hotsprings), Kyoto, Nara, famous historical ruins, shrines, temples,Asakusa, festivals, Nikko Toshogu shrine, climbing Mt Fuji, or shoppingtips in Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza and Akihabara. Tokyo will be hostingthe Summer Olympic Games in 2020. Without doubt the Japanese cultureshall attract and increase international interest from people around theworld.
The Oya Soichi Library has created the “Web OYA-bunko”, an originalJapanese-language Internet service for searching magazine articles,accessible online from overseas. Users will be able to search throughfive million Japanese-language articles published more than 120 yearsago. Anyone who can read Japanese can use this service. We hope it willhelp you in some way with your research on Japanese culture. Even if youare not Japanese-literate, please do browse through..., you may comeacross something very interesting!
The “Web OYA-bunko”, hopes to serve as a “living” encyclopedia on Japan, providing and sharing ‘CoolJapan’ information with people around the globe.
The Oya Soichi Library will continue making progress as a “Library of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Books Kinokuniya is the agency for using Web OYA-bunko outside of Japan.
Kinokuniya Company Ltd.
Electronic Information Sales Deaprtment
E-mail: online@kinokuniya.co.jp