Photo/Illutration Tatsuo Shishido smiles at the painting on the shutter of his Sangatsu Shobo bookstore in Kyoto. (Kenta Sujino)

KYOTO--A much-beloved bookstore here that recently closed after 70 years in business is still springing surprises on passers-by.

Sangatsu Shobo in the city's Nakagyo Ward now bears a meticulous spray painting on the shutter based on a photo of the store front as it was, giving the impression it is still open. The image appeared on Aug. 24.

The store posted a sign after it closed on June 11 that said, “Closed seven days a week, closed all year round.” 

It opened in 1950, and its unique selection of books in the humanities and social sciences attracted intellectuals such as the acclaimed critic Takaaki Yoshimoto and the “waka” poet Yuko Kawano.

While books are no longer sold at the store, the owner plans to continue selling inventory over the internet for the remainder of the year.

Soon after in-store sales ended, Tatsuo Shishido, 71, the third-generation owner felt that leaving the shutter closed did not help the ambience of the neighborhood. That was when he was contacted by Shinichi Fukuoka, 60, a biology professor at Tokyo’s Aoyama Gakuin University.

Having graduated from Kyoto University, Fukuoka was a huge fan of Sangatsu Shobo and he proposed the idea of a painting over the shutter. Shishido loved the idea and the pair agreed to split the expense.

A photo of the bookstore when it was in business proper was enlarged. But the clarity was no good, so it was decided to paint a copy.

The photo showed a reflection of a bicycle on the storefront window, so a real bicycle was placed at the same spot to recreate the photo.

“I hope people will be fooled into thinking that a store they thought had closed was still actually open,” Shishido said. “Some people may say I am not going away gracefully by doing this.”

Fukuoka found books at Sangatsu Shobo that would go on to influence his career as a researcher. One such book was “Chance and Necessity” written by the French biochemist Jacques Monod, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965.

Fukuoka described Sangatsu Shobo as the “ideal bookstore found in the community” that clearly reflected the taste and intellectual background of the owner.

“I felt the bookstore was saying ‘If you consider yourself an intellectual you have to read this,’” Fukuoka said. “I wanted it to remain in the memory of many people, but above all, I wanted people to enjoy the surprise.”

At around noon on Aug. 25, Yoshihiko Wakuda, 48, a company employee who had come all the way from Kobe admitted to being surprised.

“I used to come here often in the past because it was such a good bookstore,” Wakuda said. “I came today to find out what it looked like now. For a moment, I thought it was still open.”

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