Hiroshima Manga Library

photo by Taisyo · CC BY 3.0

photo by Taisyo · CC BY 3.0

Opened in 1997, Japan's first public library devoted solely to manga: over 120,000 volumes.

On Hijiyama hill, almost 124,000 volumes of nothing but manga stand on open shelves, plus another 56,000 in the small Asa reading room. In 1997 the library took the place of the park's old ‘open-air library’, closed the year before. If you arrive without a car, you will have to walk: the nearest bus stop, the reviews complain, does not even have a shelter.

The library opened on 1 May 1997 as a branch of Hiroshima's central library, Japan's first public library devoted solely to manga (‘公立では日本初の漫画専門図書館’). The ground had already been prepared by the Hijiyama ‘open-air library’, active from 1983 and closed on 1 December 1996. Two years after the opening, on 1 May 1999, the small Asa reading room was added, with another 56,534 volumes. As of March 2014 the Hijiyama site alone held 123,673, almost all of them manga (99.9%).

ℹ️ Open 10:00–17:00, free entry. Closed on Mondays (except public holidays), on the weekday after a public holiday, on the last day of odd-numbered months, from 29 December to 4 January, and for a reorganisation period of at most seven days a year. It stands on Hijiyama hill, next to the Museum of Contemporary Art: reviews point out that public transport is sparse and the nearest bus stop has no shelter.

🚉 Hiroshima · 20 min walk

Sources: library.city.hiroshima.jp · ja.wikipedia.org · 4travel.jp · jalan.net

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