By KAE MORISHITA/ Staff Writer
November 2, 2023 at 15:14 JST
Book lovers flock around the bookshelves and tables set up for the annual Kanda Secondhand Book Festival in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on Oct. 31. (Kae Morishita)
Book lovers are flocking to the annual Kanda Secondhand Book Festival in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward for the many bargains and rare offerings that can be found in the endless trove of bookshelves and tables.
Approximately 120 vendors line Yasukuni Street for about 500 meters, offering a million used books for sale.
The festival, held in the Kanda-Jinbocho district known as "book town," will continue until Nov. 3. An association of antiquarian booksellers in Kanda organized the event.
This year's highlights include first editions and rare novels by literary greats Kyoka Izumi, Yasunari Kawabata and Fumiko Hayashi, as well as original manuscripts by renowned authors Toyoko Yamasaki, Shusaku Endo, Seicho Matsumoto and Takeshi Kaiko.
Original photographs taken by post-war photographic giant Kenji Ishiguro in Hiroshima are also on sale.
According to Shunichi Ito from Gyozando bookstore, sales of high-priced books are better than usual and he notes that "classical Chinese books are also selling well."
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