Reading Spaces in Modern Japan
The Evolution of Sites and Practices of Reading

A comprehensive and accessible treatment of Japanese reading spaces that sheds light on changes in reading culture over time.

Andrew T. Kamei-Dyche (Author)

9781009181037, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 March 2023

75 pages
17.8 x 12.7 x 0.7 cm, 0.122 kg

This study provides an accessible overview of the range of reading spaces in modern Japan, and the evolution thereof from a historical perspective. After setting the scene in a short introduction, it examines the development of Kanda-Jinb?ch?, the area of Tokyo that has remained for a century the location in Japan most bound up with books and print culture. It then considers the transformation of public reading spaces, explaining how socio-economic factors and changing notions of space informed reading practices from the early modern era to the present. This led, in turn, to changes in bookstores, libraries, and other venues. Finally, it briefly considers the nature and impact of virtual reading spaces, such as the representation of reading and reading spaces in popular culture, and new modes of reading mediated by the digital realm as well as the multifaceted relationship between these and older forms of reading practice.

1. Introduction
2. Kanda-Jinb?ch?: Tokyo's Book Town
3. The Ongoing Transformation of Public Reading Spaces
4. Virtual Reading Spaces
5. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]