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This unique Tokyo bookstore offers one book title a week (pictures)

Piotr Kowalczyk ⋮ Published on September 5, 2015

There is a bookstore in Tokyo where you won’t have a problem with deciding which book to buy.

Don’t you sometimes go to a bookstore, and in the end can’t decide which book to buy, because there are so many of them you desperately want to read?

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– January 30, 2023

There is one bookstore in the world where you won’t have this problem. It’s Morioka Shoten Ginza (Morioka Bookstore in Ginza).

It offers for sale one title for six continuous days, from Tuesday to Sunday. Every evening an event is organized to discuss the book and connect its author with readers.

A concept of a “single room with a single book” was invented by Yoshiyuki Morioka, the owner of Morioka Shoten Co., Ltd. For ten years, he was running only a slightly more conventional bookstore in Kayabacho, organizing meetings with authors and exhibitions.

Morioka’s experience with Kaybacho bookstore led him to believe that a focusing on a single book would increase its understanding and build a deeper relationship, what would eventually raise a pleasure of reading to a new level.

The story of how the idea of a bookstore came into being is highly inspiring.

In September 2014, Morioka attended a workshop, a part of the academy organized by Takram Design Engineering.

This particular meeting, run by Masamichi Toyama, was focused on new business. Participants were asked to create and present ideas that had to fit on one page of a presentation. Yoshiyuki Morioka came up with “Regeneration of a bookseller atom – a bookstore with a single book.” The concept won the heart of Masamichi Toyama, and met with enthusiastic reception from other participants.

The idea of a bookstore where only one book is displayed makes an old truth clearly visible: every book is worth reading.

Every book on every shelf in every bookstore or a library in the world is worth reading. The book you wanted to read. The book in a category you like. And the book you never thought you would ever pick up from a bookshelf.

There is only one condition, I admit – very hard to meet. You need to focus on this single book for longer than a moment.

The single-book bookshop opened in May 2015, on a quiet street in Ginza, a popular shopping area of Tokyo. It’s located on the ground floor of the Suzuki Building from 1929, included in the list of the historical architecture of Tokyo.

Morioka Shoten is a one more reason to visit Tokyo, so I’ve found the contact details and a Google Street Map View of the closest area.

I’m sure there are book lovers (and I’m among them) who won’t miss a chance to visit the bookstore, talk to its owner, hear the story about the book, and finally buy it.

Morioka Shoten Ginza
Address: Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 1-28-15, Suzuki Building
Telephone: 03-3535-5020
Opening hours: 13:00 – 20:00 Tuesday-Sunday

Images by Miyuki Kaneko. Via Takram.