, formerly , is a

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

founded in 1886 in Japan and headquartered in

Sendagaya is an area within Shibuya ward, one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo. Introduction Sendagaya is nestled in an urban green area in Shibuya ward between Shinjuku ward and Shinjuku Gyo-en (Shinjuku Imperial Gardens) to the north (an area in Sen ...

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. It publishes the magazine '' Bungei'' and administers the

Bungei Prize The is a Japanese literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with ...

History

Kawade Shobō Shinsha traces its history to 1886 when a new branch of the bookstore in

Gifu Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture ...

was opened by Seiichirō Kawade (1857–1936) in

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The curre ...

. In 1888, it became independent and published primarily textbooks and reference books in the fields of mathematics, physics, geography and agriculture. In 1933, it was established as a literary publisher and renamed to by Seiichirō's son-in-law Takao Kawade (1901–1965), who served as its second president. It primarily published literary and arts books, as well as books on philosophy and various

schools of thought A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement. ...

. In 1944, the publishing house acquired the literary magazine '' Bungei'' from . In 1945, Kawade Shobō was damaged during the

Bombing of Tokyo The was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bomb ...

and moved to Kanda-Ogawamachi in

Chiyoda, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English language, English.

. In July 1949, Kawade Shobō published

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered fo ...

's breakout second novel '' Confessions of a Mask''. In 1951, Kawade Shobō published the major best-selling nonfiction book by , titled . In 1957, Kawade Shobō went bankrupt. Publication of ''Bungei'' was suspended. A new company named Kawade Shobō Shinsha was established on 2 May 1957. In 1962, Kawade Shobō Shinsha relaunched the ''Bungei'' magazine and established the

, which is awarded to new authors. It was first awarded to

Kazumi Takahashi was a Japanese novelist and scholar of Chinese literature in Shōwa period Japan. His wife was fellow writer Takako Takahashi. Biography Takahashi was born in Naniwa-ku, Osaka, and was a graduate of Kyoto University. While still a student, he ...

's 1962 novel . Many of the Prize's winners became major bestsellers, including Yasuo Tanaka's 1981 novel

Somehow, Crystal is a Japanese novel by Yasuo Tanaka. Published in magazine form as the winner of the 17th Bungei Prize in 1980, it was also nominated for the Akutagawa Prize, and published in book form by Kawade Shobō Shinsha in 1981. A bestseller shortly af ...

, and Akemi Hotta's 1981 novel . The Bungei Prize has produced many successful writers, including

Amy Yamada born February 8, 1959, is a popular but controversial contemporary Japanese writer who is most famous for her stories that address issues of sexuality, racism, and interracial love and marriage. Her debut and subsequent popular success in the 1 ...

, , Tomoyuki Hoshino, Maki Kashimada, ,

Risa Wataya is a female Japanese novelist from Kyoto. Her short novel ''Keritai senaka'' won the Akutagawa Prize and has sold more than a million copies. Wataya has also won the Bungei Prize and the Kenzaburo Oe Prize. Her work has been translated into Ger ...

, , ,

Nao-Cola Yamazaki is the professional name of , a Japanese writer. They pride themselves on writing "things no one else can say in words anyone can understand". They have won the Bungei Prize and the Shimase Award for Love Stories. They have been nominated mult ...

Nanae Aoyama is a Japanese fiction writer. She has won the Akutagawa Prize, the Bungei Prize, and the Yasunari Kawabata Literary Prize. Her work has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, German, French, and Italian. Early life and education Aoya ...

and . In 1965, Takao Kawade died and his son Tomohisa Kawade became the company's third president. In 1968, the company went bankrupt once again. Tomohisa applied for the and the company was rebuilt. Takayuki Nakajima took over the company's leadership. In 1977, the company moved to Sumiyoshi-chō,

Shinjuku is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administrati ...

and Masaru Shimizu assumed leadership of the company. In 1979, it moved

. In 1983, Kawade Shobō Shinsha published

Jūrō Kara is a Japanese avant-garde playwright, theatre director, author, actor, and songwriter. He was at the forefront of the '' Angura'' ("underground") theatre movement in Japan. Career Graduating from Meiji University, Kara formed his own theatre trou ...

's novel , which was awarded the prestigious

Akutagawa Prize The is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes. History ...

and became a major bestseller and sensation in Japan. In 1987, Kawade Shobō Shinsha published

Machi Tawara is a contemporary Japanese writer, translator and poet. Tawara is most famous as a contemporary poet. She is credited with revitalizing the tanka for modern Japanese audiences. Her skill as a translator consist of translating classical Japanese ...

's debut collection of

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

poems, . It also published Tawara's collections ''Kaze no Tenohira'' (1991) and ''Chocolate Revolution'' (1997). ''Salad Anniversary'' was a major bestseller, selling 2.8 million copies. In the 1990s,

Masaya Nakahara , also known by his stage names Violent Onsen Geisha and Hair Stylistics, is a Japanese musician, writer and actor. He was described by Allmusic as "one of those musical entities that defy categorization." He co-starred in Shinji Aoyama's 2005 fil ...

and Shū Fujisawa and other writers published their debut works through Kawade Shobō Shinsha. At the end of the 1990s, there was a boom of young writers centered around ''Bungei''. In 1998, Kawade Shobō Shinsha coined the term , a genre of easily consumable contemporary Japanese literature for the average young city dweller. In 2002, Shigeo Wakamori became president of Kawade Shobō Shinsha. In January 2004,

was awarded the 130th Akutagawa Prize for her novel . At age 19, she became the award's youngest winner. The novel was published in hardcover by Kawade Shobō Shinsha in August 2003. Within two months of winning the Akutagawa Prize, the novel sold over one million copies. In 2011, Yū Onodera was appointed president of Kawade Shobō Shinsha. In 2014, four young employees of Kawade Shobō Shinsha voiced concerns over the significant increase in sales of books and magazines in Japan which feature an

Anti-Chinese sentiment Anti-Chinese sentiment, also known as Sinophobia, is a fear or dislike of China, Chinese people or Chinese culture. It often targets Chinese minorities living outside of China and involves immigration, development of national identity i ...

and

Anti-Korean sentiment Anti-Korean sentiment involves hatred or dislike that is directed towards Korean people, culture or either of the two states (North Korea or South Korea) on the Korean Peninsula. Origins Anti-Korean sentiment is present in China, Japan, ...

. Kawade Shobō Shinsha organized an in-store fair to sell objective publications about Japanese social issues, titled . The selection was conducted in collaboration with writers and critics, including Eiji Oguma,

Toshiki Okada is a Japanese playwright, theater director, novelist, and founder of the theatrical company chelfitsch. He is known for "his use of hyper-colloquial Japanese and his unique choreography."Program for ''Five Days in March'', On the Boards (Seattle ...

Kazuhiro Soda is a Japanese documentary filmmaker and author based in New York City. He is known for his observational method of documentary filmmaking. Soda obtained a degree in religious studies from the University of Tokyo in 1993 and a BFA in filmmaking ...

Kyoko Nakajima is a Japanese writer. She has won the Naoki Prize, Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, Shibata Renzaburo Prize, Kawai Hayao Story Prize, and Chuo Koron Literary Prize, and her work has been adapted for film. Early life and education Kyoko Na ...

Keiichiro Hirano is a Japanese novelist. Hirano was born in Gamagori, Aichi prefecture, Japan. He published his first novel (''Nisshoku'', ) in 1998 and won the Akutagawa Prize the next year as one of the youngest winners ever (at 23 years of age). He graduat ...

, Tomoyuki Hoshino and Tatsuya Mori. A total of 18 books were selected, including 6 books published by Kawade Shobō Shinsha and 12 books published by other companies. This included books focused on China and South Korea, but also books about

consumption tax A consumption tax is a tax levied on consumption spending on goods and services. The tax base of such a tax is the money spent on consumption. Consumption taxes are usually indirect, such as a sales tax or a value-added tax. However, a consumpt ...

public assistance Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

, modern history,

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fed ...

, and religion. Over 100 bookstores in Japan participated in the fair.

Publications

Magazine

* '' Bungei''

Book series

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

Kawade Shobō Shinsha
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawade Shobo Shinsha Book publishing companies in Tokyo Comic book publishing companies in Tokyo Magazine publishing companies in Tokyo Publishing companies established in 1886 Japanese companies established in 1886