Hunting for Rare Books: The Fascinating Rare Vintage Discoveries of Japan Book Hunter
Pure elation floods your body when you walk into second-hand bookstores, rich in variety and pages tinged soft yellow with time. But anxiety may floor you when you realize how dispersed the content of the books are, and the panic settles in harder if it’s in a foreign language.
Navigating second-hand book shops truly is an art, and hunting down rare finds boils down to being a skill rather than mere luck. Japan Book Hunter has you covered if you’re looking for rare Japanese books.
Japan Book Hunter works as an online shop selling collector items like toys, art, and posters and an expertly curated selection of rare vintage Japanese books. The books will surely please an audience well-versed in the ero-guro genre, Showa art, pulpy mangas, obscure photography, and archive adult magazines. Fans of Mandarake are also sure to find what they’re looking for on the website. The headquarters of this online store is in Koenji, which is conveniently located not too far from Nakano Broadway.
On top of that, Japan Book Hunter is a one-man show, run by Shawn, who also meticulously reviews some of his finds on YouTube on his account Koenji Shawn Reviews. “Hunter” is fitting to what Shawn does, as it can take hours and days to find the perfect items: patience and a keen eye is necessary. Alternative mangas, BDSM art, 20th-century Japanese superheroes, body horror, yakuza culture, and more are on his radar.
Japan Book Hunter’s available products are almost too good to be true, and to boot that, it ships internationally (exceptions apply). If you’re currently not in Japan and are looking for some 90s Nippon sci-fi art books or underground horror manga for incredibly reasonable prices, you now know where to go.
About the Author:
Mizuki Khoury
Born in Montreal, based in Tokyo. Sabukaru’s senior writer and works as an artist under Exit Number Five.
