午夜剧场

It is fair to say that the education of the postwar generation, centered on the baby boomers, was nurtured by complete works of Japanese and world literature. I have heard that even today, international students researching Japanese literature and culture use them as a fountain of knowledge. The purpose of this book is to record the flow of these complete works of literature and to position them within the history of publishing culture.

One often hears stories of spending vast amounts of time and money collecting basic materials for writing, but in the case of this book, while time was certainly spent, the financial burden was small. This is because the used book prices for complete works of literature have plummeted. While this helped me in some ways, the feeling of loneliness regarding this fact is stronger. Instead of the issue of cost, what emerged was the challenge of securing a large enough space to examine these massive sets of complete works one after another. The reason I came to my research office almost every day, and sometimes on weekends, was not because I was a diligent researcher, but because I needed a place to pile up the books. This book was created by spending time and space—not in a metaphorical sense, but in a literal, physical sense!

While purchasing complete works of literature and related materials one after another at used bookstores, I also had unexpected encounters. There are enthusiasts who boast that the joy of used books lies in the traces left by previous owners; one set of complete works appeared to have been owned during the student days of someone who had made a brilliant career transition from a high-ranking official to a governor and then a member of the Diet. A delivery slip from a local bookstore addressed to the individual was tucked inside. An unapproachable member of the elite suddenly felt much more relatable.

Libraries in various regions were just as helpful as used bookstores. Variant editions of complete works of literature are like a quagmire. No matter how many you collect, anxiety remains. When visiting literary museums as a hobby, I always visit the local library to look at the shelves of complete literary works. I was deeply moved by libraries that preserved books with their original boxes and jackets intact, or those that held duplicate copies of variant editions of complete works if the books were by local authors.

Company histories and publication catalogs from publishers are essential for this type of research. The meticulous company histories of publishers were indispensable for verifying the descriptions and conjectures in this book. I was able to correct some parts of the descriptions in these vast company histories, but that was only possible because each company poured love into its publications and recorded every detail, large and small. This book is built upon the love poured into books by publishers, libraries, used bookstores, and others.

Kenji Tasaka (Author)

午夜剧场 Press

296 pages, 2,400 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of writing.