The Most Famous Library of Manga

The Meiji University Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subculture in Tokyo is one of the centers of manga research.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

If you want to read old manga magazines and books, learn more about manga culture, or see exhibits related to manga, the Meiji University Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subculture in Tokyo is definitely the place to go. Let’s visit this library, which supports academic research as a facility dedicated to manga.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

A mecca for manga research

Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo: The Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subculture was born in 2009 from the manga collection of the late Yoshihiro Yonezawa (1953–2006), in a corner not far from the famous Jimbocho “book town.” Today, manga is recognized worldwide as a representative facet of Japanese culture, but its history as a subject of academic research is still relatively young, and even fewer libraries in Japan specialize in collecting manga-related materials. In this context, this Meiji University-run facility has been supporting manga research through the systematic collection, preservation, and utilization of materials, holding of exhibitions, and other activities. (July 2020 interview)

The library is housed in an above-ground, seven-story building. There is an exhibition hall for permanent and special exhibitions on the first floor, an open shelf reading room on the second floor, and closed stacks on the third through fifth floors. Anyone can view the displays on the first floor for free. Registering as a library member will allow access to the second floor reading room, which contains approximately 4,500 volumes of material that capture the essence of the library, such as postwar manga magazines and tankōbon (standalone volumes of a single manga), mainly from Yonezawa’s collection up until his death in 2006. In addition, materials from the approximately 70,000-volume collection held in the archives can be viewed by request.

Yoshihiro YonezawaOriginal Source: Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures

Who was Yoshihiro Yonezawa?

Yoshihiro Yonezawa, the man who built the foundation of the library, was the author of titles such as A History of Postwar Girls’ Manga, A History of Postwar Science Fiction Manga, and A History of Postwar Gag Manga (all published under the Chikuma Bunko label), as well as a manga critic who pioneered current manga research. The library was created through the efforts of his acquaintances, who lamented the dissipation of his collection after his death. Behind their efforts was the growing momentum behind academic research into subcultures such as manga and animation since the 2000s.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Learn about the Comic Market

Another important aspect of Yonezawa was the role he played as representative of the preparatory committee that runs the Comic Market (Comiket), which is the world’s largest marketplace for dōjinshi (self-published works), currently held twice a year in summer and winter. Yonezawa, who co-founded Comiket with his friends in 1975, served as its representative from 1980 until his death in 2006. In addition to housing catalogs from Comiket and other dōjinshi marketplaces, as well as Yonezawa’s collection of approximately 4,000 volumes of dōjinshi, the library also temporarily holds approximately 50,000 sample copies of titles submitted by participating circles (publishing groups) at each Comiket and provides opportunities for viewing them.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Preserve the manga ecosystem

Librarian Misaki of the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library says, “Yonezawa said that ‘We must look at the trees, not the forest. And if the trees wither, the forest will also die.’” Yonezawa’s intentions are behind the library’s decision to handle not only works distributed by the commercial publishing industry, but to also collect all kinds of dōjinshi created by amateurs. The manga world does not consist solely of a few “masterpieces” or “famous works”; rather, it is contantly evolving through the grassroots activities of people who love the medium.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

An extensive collection of materials

Yonezawa’s desire to preserve the entire environment surrounding manga is strikingly evident in the closed stacks on the third through fifth floors. Yonezawa collected everything from popular manga magazines to grade school magazines and adult reading materials, basically almost anything that met his criteria of “containing manga in it.” Most of these magazines were meant to be read once as a form of temporary entertainment and thrown away; only a few popular works lived on as standalone volumes. However: “What page a particular work was printed on at the time of its publication is also important information,” says Misaki. In this collection, the lives of these works are preserved along with the atmosphere of the times during which they were published.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Shelves upon shelves are lined with shōnen (boys’) and shōjo (girls’) manga magazines, ranging from those that feature the manga prominently on the covers to those that attempt to lure in readers with photos of popular idols. The cover of each magazine conveys a sense of the era in which it was published.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

To protect the collection, the library places each item in a clear plastic sleeve and manages the information using a card, rather than attaching stickers directly on the items.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

This ensures that stickers do not obscure the information or detract from the important sense of time conveyed by each book. If you request a magazine from the era during which you were born, you may be surprised at what you find flipping through it.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

An exhibition that takes a multifaceted approach to manga

The exhibition hall on the first floor is made up of three sections. There is a permanent exhibition that introduces the library’s diverse collection, a space for special exhibitions that change three times a year, and a corner with materials related to Comiket.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

The permanent exhibition naturally contains manga, but it also displays a surprisingly large number of materials on the genre called “ero-guro” (erotic, grotesque, and nonsensical), a subculture not limited to manga. The reason why such materials were collected, according to Misaki, is because “Yonezawa respected freedom of expression and had the mindset of not rejecting any culture.” This outlook on peripheral cultures that are generally not taken seriously or are dismissed as being “frivolous” also extends to his love for manga.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures,“BEASTARS Original Exhibition"Original Source: Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures

The content of the special exhibitions is diverse, ranging from exhibitions that look back on the contributions of the masters, to those that focus on recent popular works such as BEASTARS by Paru Itagaki (Akita Shoten), to those that introduce character cultures surrounding manga, such as the Vocaloid software “Hatsune Miku.”

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures,“BEASTARS Original Exhibition"Original Source: Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures, "Jun Mihara Original Color Pictures"Original Source: Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures

One the most popular exhibitions was a two-time exhibition that showcased the work of Jun Mihara, a manga artist who died prematurely and was known for creating shōjo manga in a socially-aware style. Inspired by the “Twenty Years After Her Death Exhibition” held at the library in 2015, and as a result of a four-year-long process of organizing Mihara’s original works, the “Original Color Illustrations Exhibition” was held in 2019. The same exhibition also led to the publication of the book Jun Mihara All Color Works (Hakusensha).

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures, "Jun Mihara Original Color Pictures"Original Source: Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

This corner introduces Comiket, the convention that Yonezawa was involved in establishing and for which he long served as representative of the preparatory committee. Comiket started in 1975 with 32 circles and 700 participants and has since grown into a massive event that currently attracts 32,000 circles and 750,000 participants. The corner displays items such as valuable notes from the first convention and a layout diagram depicting the locations of circles participating in the event. This densely packed diagram, which was exhibited at the Japan Pavilion of the 9th Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition (2004) themed on the relationship between otaku culture and the city, conveys the intensity of the Comiket venue.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures, Exhibition ViewOriginal Source: Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures

Interested in Comiket history, the ingenuity that goes into building a venue with such a huge number of participants, and the diversity of the manga, Misaki planned an exhibition titled “The Comic Market Exhibition: As Seen Through Print Materials” (2019).

Another library: The Contemporary Manga Library

There is another manga library operated by Meiji University. 

“Meiji University Contemporary Manga Library” which was located in Waseda, Shinjuku-ku until 2019, moved to Meiji University Surugadai Campus in 2021 and is operated in combination with the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library. The library has received a donation of over 200,000 volumes from the private library which was established in 1978 by the late Toshio Uchiki (1937-2012), the manager of a commercial lending library. It houses a wide range of manga from the era of ‘Kashihon-manga’ (rental manga)to the present.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and SubculturesOriginal Source: Photo by TADA(YUKAI)

Toward further expansion as a base for manga research

Currently, the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library is also engaged in collaborative activities with the Japanese government, such as providing manga-related data to the “Media Arts Database” built by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. “The great thing about Japanese manga is that it is so diverse. No single work is independent; each one is created as a result of being influenced by various other manga artists’ works and neighboring cultures,” says Misaki. Keep watch of this library and its activities as it aims to create an environment where anyone can access materials freely and draw on the legacy of the past to create future manga and research works.

Credits: Story

Cooperation:
Meiji University Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subculture

Text: Tamaki Sugihara
Photo: TADA(YUKAI)
Edit: Natsuko Fukushima(BIJUTSU SHUPPAN-SHA CO., LTD.)
Supervisor: Hirohito Miyamoto(Meiji University)
Written in 2020

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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