"Shibaki Yoshiko Novel Collection: New Days" will be released on Wednesday, August 25th by the publishing company run by Hiromitsu Kitada, a literary concierge at Tsutaya Bookstore.

2021.08.02 Press Releases
Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd. / Tsutaya Bookstore Company

-Pre-sales will begin on Monday, August 2nd at Umeda Tsutaya Bookstore-

Shoshi Kisuiiki, a one-man publishing company run by Kitada Hiromitsu, manager and literary concierge of Umeda Tsutaya Bookstore (9F Lucua 1100, 3-1-3 Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka), operated by Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd. Tsutaya Bookstore Company (headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Company President and CEO: Umetani Tomohiro), will begin selling the reprint of Shibaki Yoshiko's Novel Collection: New Days, commemorating 30 years since the death of Akutagawa Prize-winning author Shibaki Yoshiko, from Wednesday, August 25, 2021.

*Pre-sales will begin on Monday, August 2nd at Umeda Tsutaya Bookstore.

This work is the fifth book by Shoshi Kisuiiki, a group run by Kitada Hiromitsu, a literary concierge at Tsutaya Bookstore and chairman of the executive committee for the Futakotamagawa Book Fair, which brought together 40 bookstores and attracted 33,000 visitors over two days.The book was bound by up-and-coming bookbinder Niijima Tatsuhiko, and its release date, Wednesday, August 25th, marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Shibaki Yoshiko.

Currently, all of Shibaki Yoshiko's works are out of print or out of stock, with no plans to reprint them, and are not circulating on the market. Kitada Hiromitsu, manager of Umeda Tsutaya Bookstore, wanted to change this situation, even if only a little, where valuable literary works are out of print or out of stock and do not reach readers, so he founded the one-man publishing company Shoshi Kisuiiki, and is publishing literary works that will be read for 10 or 20 years at a time.
Yoshiko Shibaki (1914-1991) won the 14th Akutagawa Prize in 1942 for her novel "The Fruit and Vegetable Market," and went on to win many other literary awards, including the Women's Literature Prize and the Japan Literature Grand Prize. She is one of the most representative female writers of the postwar period.

He has written many excellent, highly readable medium-length and full-length novels, including his autobiographical trilogy "Yuba," "Sumida River," and "Marunouchi Building No. 8," as well as "Suzaki Paradise," "Snow Dance," and "Ultramarine Lake." However, he has also written many short stories that create rich fictional worlds within a limited space.

The newly published "Shibaki Yoshiko Novel Collection: New Days" is a collection of eight short stories written by Shibaki Yoshiko that feature flowers. The book's design uses flower photographs by photographer Baba Maki, and four different covers are available (the included works are the same). Each sleeve case is hand-stamped with foil by artisans. The result is a rich and flavorful book that combines the changing of flowers with the changing of life.

<Bibliographic information>
(01) Title: Yoshiko Shibaki's Novel Collection: New Days
(02) Publication date: August 25, 2021
(03) Author: Yoshiko Shibaki
(04) Publisher: Shoshi Brackish Water Area
(05) Publisher: Kitada Hiromitsu
(06) Bookbinding: Tatsuhiko Niijima
(07) Cover photo: Maki Baba
(08) Specifications: Round spine, hardcover, B6 format, 272 pages, comes in a sleeve case
(09) Distribution: 2,000 copies
(10) Sales price: 2,200 yen (tax included)
(11) ISBN 978-4-9908899-5-1

(01) Nineteen years old (Shincho Bunko "Winter Plums" 1994)
(02) Winter Plums (Shincho Bunko "Winter Plums" 1994)
(03) White bush clover (Kodansha Bunko "Purple Mountain" 1988)
(04) Late Autumn (Kodansha Bunko "Purple Mountain" 1988)
(05) Distant Youth (Shueisha Bunko "Women's Garden" 1986)
(06) New Days (Shueisha Bunko "Women's Garden" 1986)
(07) Spotlight (Shueisha Bunko "Song of Farewell" 1991)
(08) Tears of an Old Prostitute (Shueisha Bunko "Hana Kasumi" 1989)

A collection of novels by Shibaki Yoshiko, a representative writer of postwar women's literature, is being published 30 years after her death. This is a collection of stories focusing on flowers, such as plum blossoms, peonies, irises, white lilies, white bush clovers, and forgotten flowers, which are depicted strikingly in Shibaki's works. This is a rich and flavorful book in which the changing of flowers and the changing of life overlap, and the pain and joy of living as a woman permeate between the lines.

Several of Shibaki Yoshiko's works are based on the theme of dyeing, and the title story of this volume, "New Days," is a coming-of-age novel depicting the daily life of a 24-year-old runaway girl who lives and works in a dyeing workshop.
During her lifetime, Shibaki Yoshiko had a relationship with dye artist Shimura Fukumi, and her experiences at that time are also written about in her essay collection "Occasional Journeys."After reading it, bookbinder Tatsuhiko Niijima wondered, "Is it possible to create a book that uses plant-dyed colors to convey the story of a woman's life?" and visited Atelier Shimura, which carries on the philosophy of dye artist Fukumi Shimura. Then, a plan was launched to create a special edition, in which each book would be hand-bound by Niijima Tatsuhiko using plant-dyed textiles produced by Atelier Shimura.
In addition to the eight stories included in the regular edition, this special edition includes a short story, "Dyeing," featuring a dyer as the main character.

(01) Sales price: 49,500 yen (tax included)
(02) Made to order: Limited to 20 copies
(03) Order period: August 15th to September 15th, 2020
(04) Author: Yoshiko Shibaki
(05) Publisher: Kitada Hiromitsu
(06) Publisher: Shoshi Brackish Water Area
(07) Bookbinding: Tatsuhiko Niijima
(08) Produced by Shinohara Paper Co., Ltd.
(09) Specifications: Round spine, hardcover, B6 format, vegetable-dyed fabric, gift boxed

Shoshi Kishuiiki is a one-man publishing house run by Kitada Hiromitsu, the store manager and literary concierge at Umeda Tsutaya Bookstore, who creates and sells the books he wants to sell with his own hands. To date, he has produced four books: "The Future of Bookstores" (Kitada Hiromitsu) in 2016, "Lost Items" (Yokota Hajime) in 2018, "Tada Hiroko Novel Collection: Body Temperature" (Tada Hiroko) in 2019, and "Nonono" (Ota Yasuhisa) in 2020, and this latest publication is his fifth book.

Materials related to this matter

"Shibaki Yoshiko Novel Collection: New Days" will be released on Wednesday, August 25th by the publishing company run by Hiromitsu Kitada, a literary concierge at Tsutaya Bookstore.

Media Inquiries
Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd. Tsutaya Bookstore Company Public Relations Office Email: tsutaya_pr@ccc.co.jp