Bookstore - Honya

A publisher and retailer of books and scrolls. While manuscripts were already being sold by sutra scribes in Kyoto during the Heian period, professional bookstores did not appear until the end of the Muromachi period, when there were illustrated scroll shops in Kyoto that sold handwritten fairy tales and Nara picture books. Full-scale book publishing and sales was established during the Genna and Kan'ei periods (1615-1644) of the Edo period, when bookstores publishing books using old movable type and then woodblock prints appeared, mainly in Kyoto. The publishing industry boomed around the Genroku period (1688-1704), when there were over 100 bookstores in Kyoto, over 20 in Osaka, and about 40 in Edo, with bookstores also appearing in Nagoya, Kanazawa, Sendai, and other cities. At first, most of the publications were Buddhist books, Confucian books, and Japanese classics, but many new works such as haiku books, kana zoshi, ukiyo zoshi, joruri books, and chohoki were also published, and works by Ihara Saikaku and Chikamatsu Monzaemon became best-sellers.

Among bookshops, those that mainly published Buddhist books, Confucian books, Japanese classics, etc. (these were called mono no hon) were called mono no honya (mono no hon), shomotsu ya (bookshops), or shomotsu tonya (book wholesalers), and were distinguished from ezoushi-ya (picture book stores), which published illustrated books. In the late early modern period, publishing industries in Osaka and Edo rose to prominence, with dozens of bookshops in each region operating at any one time. Ezoushi-ya (picture book stores) that published Edo-style ukiyo-e, kibyoshi (yellow cover books), and chuhon (nakahon books) were called jihon tonya (literally "jihon" wholesalers), and there were more than ten of them in operation at any one time. Well-known booksellers include Izumo-ji Izuminojo (Kyoto; Classical Japanese Texts, Buke Kanji), Heiraku-ji Murakami Kanbei (Kyoto; Buddhist books), Suwara-ya Mohei (Edo; Buke Kanji and Edo maps), and Tsutaya Juzaburo (Edo; Ukiyo-e by Utamaro and Sharaku).

[Yozo Imada]

"Bookstores in Edo" by Imada Yozo (1977, Japan Broadcasting Publishing Association)" ▽ "Research on the Publishing Culture of Early Modern Kyoto" by Munemasa Isoo (1982, Dohosha Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

書物、草紙(そうし)類の出版販売業者。すでに平安時代の京都で経師による写本販売があったが、専業本屋の出現は室町時代末期で、京都に絵草紙屋があり、手書きの御伽草子(おとぎぞうし)や奈良絵本を売った。本格的な書物出版販売業の成立は、江戸時代の元和(げんな)・寛永(かんえい)期（1615～1644）で、古活字版ついで木版で出版を営む本屋が、京都を中心に輩出した。元禄(げんろく)年間（1688～1704）前後は出版業の大発展期で、京都では100余軒、大坂では20余軒、江戸では約40軒の本屋が活動し、名古屋、金沢、仙台などにも現れた。初め、仏書、儒学書、和文古典の刊行が多かったが、俳諧(はいかい)書、仮名草子、浮世草子、浄瑠璃(じょうるり)本、重宝記(ちょうほうき)などの新作物も多く刊行され、井原西鶴(さいかく)や近松門左衛門(もんざえもん)の作品はベストセラー現象を呈した。

　本屋のなかでも、仏書、儒学書、和文古典など（これらを物(もの)の本といった）を主として出版する業者を、物の本屋、書物屋、書物問屋などといい、絵草紙類を出す絵草紙屋と区別されていた。近世後期は、大坂、江戸の出版業が台頭し、常時それぞれ数十軒の本屋が活動していた。江戸独特の浮世絵、黄表紙(きびょうし)、中本(ちゅうほん)類を出版した絵草紙屋は地本(じほん)問屋とよばれ、常時10余軒が活動していた。著名な本屋として出雲寺和泉掾(いずもじいずみのじょう)（京都。和文古典、武鑑）、平楽寺(へいらくじ)村上勘兵衛（京都。仏書）、須原屋(すわらや)茂兵衛（江戸。武鑑と江戸絵図）、蔦屋重三郎(つたやじゅうざぶろう)（江戸。歌麿(うたまろ)・写楽の浮世絵）などがあげられる。

［今田洋三］

『今田洋三著『江戸の本屋さん』（1977・日本放送出版協会）』▽『宗政五十緒著『近世京都出版文化の研究』（1982・同朋舎出版）』

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