I recently came across a poem collection I really like. It’s entitled The Sound of Windows. The collection is a rather thin book with only nine poems in it. The poems are written by different Japanese poets, such as Tamiki Hara and Toson Shimazaki, etc. I am not particularly familiar with Japanese poems and have only read some from Santoka Taneda and Shuntaro Tanikawa. I never read anything from the nine poets in the book. But this did not stop me from enjoying the poem collection. I like this collection, as the different poems in it constitute a unified experience.

The book’s cover is wrapped with glassine, as if it is covered by a transparent curtain. When you flip the cover it rustles like breeze blowing through tree leaves. Then you start to read the poems. As you go through each page, you feel like you are opening a window every time. Behind the window sits the breathtaking sceneries from the poems. The book binding also matches the theme of window and the poems. You can already feel the vibe the poems try to convey when you are holding the book in your hands.

The Sound of Windows was published by Hioriyomi, a small publisher with only one employee named Nobuko Yamamoto. Nobuko Yamamoto is the owner, editor, and designer of the publishing company. She is even in charge of binding the books. Hioriyomi has been publishing poem collections. As a veteran editor herself, Nobuko Yamamoto will decide the theme of each book and choose suitable poems from a large literature base. She tries to construct the sceneries and vibe that the poems want to convey through book design and binding style. In most of the time she will employ letterpress technique. The combination of the letterpress and the printing will be outsourced to professional companies. After the pages are ready, Nobuko Yamamoto will personally bind them together into a book. This requires exceptional patience.

To produce The Sound of Windows, Nobuko Yamamoto invited Masayo Mori, an industry expert specialising in copperplate printing, to make a copperplate illustration for each poem. The last illustration in the book is for Kamenosuke Ogata’s poem The Room in the Afternoon. The illustration was printed with copperplate printing technique and then sticks to the book page. Here is a simple translation of the poem:

Apples, oranges and bananas

Sits in the plate on the table 

In the afternoon

In the room

Like it’s glued inside the glass window 

Alone in the corner of the room

Alone

The simple poem reads like a painting that shows a tranquil and lonely scene. If the illustration takes most of the space on the page, then it might be very distracting. That is why Nobuko and Masayo tried to make the illustrations as small as possible, leaving more space on the page to showcase a sense of tranquility. Hioriyomi’s special one-person company status allows Nobuko Yamamoto to appreciate the poems and immerse herself in the vibe the poems try to create. Perhaps that is why she is able to produce poem collections that delicate and deep.

In fact, one-person publishing companies like Hioriyomi are not rare in Japan. For example, book binding expert Akie Tsuzuki has a one-person company called Postaldia. There are also companies like Saicoro from Hideyuki Saito, etc. Saicoro’s studio is even equipped with a letterpress printing machine, allowing Hideyuki Saito to cover the entire book production process, from the design, printing and binding, etc.

These publishers do not publish a lot of books. For instance, Nobuko Yamamoto only printed a hundred copies of The Sound of Windows. Today we are so used to online shopping that makes it super easy for the one hundred copies to circulate in the market. However, consumers that really like books with such design are probably those who read a lot and are crazy about how books feel in their hands. These readers would need to touch the book itself so as to know whether they are moved by it or not. I believe these readers would not want such delicate books to be judged based on some photos online. The best platform for these great books is the shelf of a bookstore.

I saw Nobuko Yamamoto’s books for the very first time at On Reading, a bookstore in Nagoya. On Reading is a fusion of a bookstore and gallery. Though small, the space has attracted many independent publishers to display their books and magazines there. Then I encountered Nobuko Yamamoto’s books again at Colon Book. Colon Book is a bookstore founded by graphic designer Tetsuya Yuasa and illustrator Keiko Yuasa. The bookstore is only open during exhibition period. Recently, rumor has it that Shioribi, a café plus bookstore in Matsumoto, has also displayed Nobuko Yamamoto’s books.

I am listing out these examples to make one point: It is not an easy task for similar books from independent publishers to go on the shelves of major bookstores regardless how great and creative they are. In addition, major bookstores will charge the publishers a commission, which is not acceptable for small publishers. Small bookstores operate in a more flexible way, which provides small publishers the platform to get their books out there for readers to see and touch them.

The truth is the retailing platforms are also where we can make innovations. When prosperous cities are left with only major retail chains, it perhaps signifies that the city is lacking innovation and creativity already.