To all International Friends of Yushodo,
I reflect briefly on 2007- the year in which we celebrated our 75th anniversary since Yushodo first opened its second-hand bookstore in the Jimbocho district of Tokyo in 1932.
Throughout last year Yushodo held a number of public events to both thank our clients and providers for their support as well as to demonstrate what Yushodo is, what we promote, as well as to set out our vision for the future in this global market.
The Yushodo Forum was held in both Tokyo and Kyoto on the theme "Books: The Printed Mind of Man" (PMM). The Yushodo Forum was well supported and we could enjoy lectures from Mr. Michael Ryan, Director of The Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University and Professor Toshi Takamiya, a renowned book collector from Keio University. Through this lecture series we were able to emphasise to the audience on "How important and valuable it is to collect rare books; and how much pleasure and enjoyment one has holding such notable rare books." Through the lecture we could also learn the impact of PMM on US education and academic course curriculums from the early 1970s.
Yushodo is delighted to state that in the period of 1970 ~ 1990 we imported to Japanese collectors many of the rare books and collectors’ items which were drawn from the many important sources of works featured in the PMM collection. I am most proud to observe that many of the books we sold at that time are now so highly valued and hard to acquire even if collectors seeking those works are prepared to pay high prices.
The period reflected on above and the focus of our Yushodo Forum was, without doubt, an era where the USA was a strong market for rare books. Throughout the most part of the 20th Century many books moved to the USA from Europe. Japan was a strong market and rode the crest of the rare book wave in the latter part of the 20th Century. All dealers are searching for where the next wave of rare book activity will rise. We at Yushodo are among the earliest activists to spot where this might be.
During 2007 many Chinese Libraries were busy knocking on the doors of the member dealers of the
International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). The ILAB, as you may know, has affiliated 21 national associations and they comprise of more than 2000 high class and highly reputable dealers. The wealthy Chinese are looking to acquire rare books and manuscripts and they are keen to see both samples and prices. As we have discovered, many of the Chinese collectors are also keen to re-acquire back the rare Chinese prints, manuscripts and other printed materials that were acquired over the course of China’s long history and sold overseas.
It seems very fitting; therefore, that one of our last events held in 2007 could also act as a bridge both to 2008 and also to the future dynamism of China and its emerging appreciation for rare books.
At the request of ILAB and to address the keen interest shown by the Chinese market I was asked to plan and prepare on how we might organize an Antique Book Fair in a market where there is a fledgling dealer network and no experience in holding such an event. Finally with the cooperation of Mr. Paul Feain of Sydney, and Mr. Chris Li of Hong Kong, the three of us decided to launch the Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair 2007. It was held between November 30 and December 2 at the Pacific Place Conference Center of Hong Kong.
We began the organising of this event and invited exhibitors to join us as pioneers to this challenge. We received very positive reaction and I wish to take this opportunity to thank the 60 dealers who came from 10 different countries who responded to my invitation with a "Yes, we will exhibit and support the fair." This response was despite my warning that we should not expect too much from this inaugural and experimental exhibition.
As you may have read in the ILAB committee report, the Hong Kong Fair was supported by close to 2000 guests and a total of US$ 1 million value of rare books were sold during the fair.
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Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair
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So to look at the bridge into 2008 and towards China: Most of the exhibitors who came to the Hong Kong book fair have stated they will support another fair and the three of us are already making plans for the next Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair later this year.
As one of the organisers of the Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair I am very proud of our achievement and I will continue to do my best to support ILAB activities in this region. No one can predict how the Chinese rare book market will evolve and whether it will reflect or better the way the Japan market grew from 30 years ago. Right now our challenge must be to continue to keep the Chinese market - dealers and collectors - informed about matters relating to rare books.
I will be meeting with Chinese representatives from Beijing rare book dealers later this month in Tokyo as a follow up to their visit to Hong Kong at the end of last year. They are keen to organise an Antiquarian Book Fair in Beijing in 2009 and they are asking for our cooperation.
Here in Japan the slowdown of sales in both rare books and academic publications - which started about ten years ago - continues to move in the same direction. This tight fiscal climate has had an effect on both libraries and book dealers. The libraries have followed global trends to move much of their academic acquisitions towards digital access, consortium and inter-library collaboration. As with the library situation in USA and Europe the spending priority on much of the tight library budget here in Japan is swallowed up by organisational and manpower overheads. The impact on some Japanese book dealers has been quite severe, however, with your support and our dedication to the market Yushodo group has maintained a stable basis to adjust to the new market dynamics.
We put our success down to a balance of good fortune and careful planning. Yushodo Group works directly with its clients for more than 90% of our sales activities. We handle high value items and relinquished the lines with low or unprofitable margins. We have used the internet and digital technologies to assist our sales activities and we are maintaining a commercial balance between sales of contemporary academic publications and sales of rare books.
Yushodo is a company whose traditions started with second-hand and rare books, but we are ever keen to meet new challenges and new technologies.
Throughout 2008 we will continue to balance between our proven product lines and approach to the market, but we will also begin to invest monies and resources into new business areas, and the deployment of new technologies. We also have plans to actively embrace becoming a mediator of digital information and electronic media - an information provider.
I wish to highlight one of the events we will be organizing throughout 2008 and this should give you a sense of how we are putting into place the vision described above:
In November 2008 JCC (a Yushodo Group company) has organised our 10th Tokyo Library Fair. During that fair we will be introducing "The Academic Information Awareness Platform", where we are inviting academic institutes, libraries, and researchers to announce to the public results of their research projects. This event will be attended by more than 20,000 librarians and library users.
It is in this vein of dynamism that we launch our 2008 business activities not only as dealers of overseas publishers and book dealers but, we ourselves, should also become producers and distributors of information.
At Yushodo we always look forward to hearing good news and requests from our overseas friends. As many of you can confirm, we believe that we are the only organization here in Japan that replies to your requests with "real" and actual answers on the Japanese market.
Best wishes to you all !
10th January 2008
