This is the official website of the Oya Soichi Library.
Located in Tokyo, the Oya Soichi Library is a unique library
specializing in Japanese magazines, from old to new. The library holds
over 800,000 Japanese magazines of 12,000 types dating from the 19th
century to the present day, spanning the Edo, Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and
Heisei Periods.
Unlike other Japanese libraries, we shelve mostly general-interest
magazines rather than magazines that are published for specific
audiences. 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 a
wide 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 Soichi
Library is most probably the only library of its kind as we house such
magazines.
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’ (hot
springs), Kyoto, Nara, famous historical ruins, shrines, temples,
Asakusa, festivals, Nikko Toshogu shrine, climbing Mt Fuji, or shopping
tips in Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza and Akihabara. Tokyo will be hosting
the Summer Olympic Games in 2020. Without doubt the Japanese culture
shall attract and increase international interest from people around the
world.
The Oya Soichi Library has created the “Web OYA-bunko”, an original
Japanese-language Internet service for searching magazine articles,
accessible online from overseas. Users will be able to search through
five million Japanese-language articles published more than 120 years
ago. Anyone who can read Japanese can use this service. We hope it will
help you in some way with your research on Japanese culture. Even if you
are not Japanese-literate, please do browse through..., you may come
across something very interesting!
The “Web OYA-bunko”, hopes to serve as a “living” encyclopedia on Japan, providing and sharing ‘Cool Japan’ 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