fl20090614x2a.jpgAccording to The Japan Times, Professor Kaichiro Morikawa and the Meiji University will open the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures, which will house the 140,000-plus items of the late manga critic and subculture enthusiast’s private collection.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa was among the first manga critics in Japan, and he helped to legitimize the medium with his writings in the ’80s. Up until his death in 2006, he was a voracious collector, known to fill entire houses with books and manga, then abandon the space as storage and migrate to another house to repeat the process. This earned him a unique sort of repute, and friends would come to him to “donate” loads of manga and magazines they no longer wanted.

There are several Manga museums in Japan, but the Yonezawa collection is notable for the broad spectrum of its works – from rental manga, to ladies comics and pornographic manga for women, as well as manga sold from vending machines and miniature manga given away as prizes.

Being an ardent anime fan, I can’t wait for ereader technology to come to the point when manga, and comics in general, can be properly displayed. Thanks to Bookofjoe for the link.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Steve, if i was editing this, I would change tyhe hedline to:

    Cushing’s school library goes digital… and the headmaster (no
    UPPERCASE on headmaster, Steve, “Headmaster” is wrong) is the talk of
    the blogosphere, pro and con

    USA TODAY: “After reading about the plan last month in the Boston
    Globe, bloggers and commenters worldwide have called *headmaster* Jim
    Tracy a snob, a spendthrift and a book burner

    By Steve Jordan

    Cushing Academy *headmaster* LOWERCASE Jim Tracy embroiled on digital
    library brouhaha

    This USA Today article describes the trials of a Massachusettes (sic)
    SCHOOL that has decided to switch to a digital library. Students
    will be able to use laptops or one of the 65 Kindles the school will
    circulate to read texts.

    Boston Globe commenters and bloggers latched on the announcement, both
    pro and con, and SOME PEOPLE CALLED Headmaster (sic) LOWERCASE please
    Jim Tracy a snob and a ”book burner,” WITH ONE PERSON actually
    CALLING HIM A BOOKBURNER AND MAKING A COMPARISON TO THE THIRD REICH

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