This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bunkobon" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
An assortment of bunkobon in a bookshop
In Japan, bunkobon (文庫本) are small-format paperback books, designed to be affordable and space-saving.
The great majority of bunkobon are A6 (105×148mm or 4.1"×5.8") in size.[1] They are sometimes illustrated and like other Japanese paperbacks usually have a dust wrapper over a plain cover. Modern bunkobon can include bestsellers and works of scholarship alike and their pocketbook size make them useful while commuting.[2] They are used for similar purposes as Western mass market paperbacks: generally for cheaper editions of books which have already been published as hardbacks.[3] However, they are typically printed on durable paper and durably bound, and some works are initially published in bunkobon format.
Bunkobon take their name from the publisher Iwanami Shoten, which, in 1927, launched the Iwanami Bunko (Iwanami Library), a series of international works aimed "to bring the classics of new and old, east and west to the broadest possible audience." The original Iwanami Bunko series is credited for transforming books in Japan into affordable, mass-market commodities.[1]
The bunkobon format began to flourish during the late 1920s, following the development of printing technology able to mass-produce cheap books and magazines. During this period, the Japanese industry further developed the bunkobon format based on German Reclam's Universal-Bibliothek book formats.[4]
^ abShockey, Nathan (2019-12-16). The Typographic Imagination: Reading and Writing in Japan's Age of Modern Print Media. Columbia University Press. pp. 59–62. doi:10.7312/shoc19428. ISBN 978-0-231-55074-1. S2CID 213248092.
^Kamei-Dyche, Andrew T. (2011). "The History of Books and Print Culture in Japan: The State of the Discipline". Book History. 14: 270–304. ISSN 1098-7371.
^Bourdaghs, Michael K.; Sakai, Cécile; Hirokazu, Toeda (2018-01-02). "Introduction: Kawabata Yasunari in the twenty-first century". Japan Forum. 30 (1): 2–11. doi:10.1080/09555803.2017.1307249. ISSN 0955-5803. S2CID 148746846.
^Kamei-Dyche, Andrew T. (2011). "The History of Books and Print Culture in Japan: The State of the Discipline". Book History. 14 (1): 270–304. doi:10.1353/bh.2011.0008. ISSN 1529-1499. S2CID 162397590.
In Japan, bunkobon (文庫本) are small-format paperback books, designed to be affordable and space-saving. The great majority of bunkobon are A6 (105×148mm...
chapter in English online. Viz has since published all the volumes. A new bunkobon re-print of the series containing new cover volumes, up to 16 volumes;...
ga Sugoi! in the bunkobon category, and fifth overall among the other new series of that year. It also ranked fifth in the bunkobon category of the 2023...
length of a light novel is about 50,000 words, and is published in the bunkobon format (A6, 10.5 cm × 14.8 cm [4.1 in × 5.8 in]). Light novels are subject...
Manga Kenkanryu (マンガ 嫌韓流, Manga Kenkanryū, "Hating the Korean Wave" or "Hating the Korean Boom") is a Japanese manga written by Sharin Yamano with a theme...
world. The left group is from Japan and shows the tankōbon and the smaller bunkobon formats. Those in the middle group of Franco-Belgian comics are in the...
and visuals, and cross media. The publishers primarily deal with books, bunkobon paperbacks, manga, and visual media magazines; the film and visual companies...
guide book Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, the novel series ranked 7th in the bunkobon category, and 3rd in the new work category. By January 2024, the series...
Grand Prize at the 26th Dengeki Novel Prize. The series ranked 15th in the bunkobon category and eighth in the new work category of the 2021 edition of Takarajimasha's...
the July 2012 issue of Dragon Magazine (released on May 19, 2012) as a bunkobon volume. The story takes place after Volume 12, and centers on Ophis' first...
BookWalker's Next Big Light Novel Hit poll, the series ranked ninth in the bunkobon category. The series has 1.1 million copies in circulation between its...
This is a list of light novel labels i.e. Japanese publishing imprints that release light novels. B's LOG Bunko – affiliated with Enterbrain Dengeki Bunko...
edition between August 23 and October 18, 1990, and a new three-volume bunkobon edition under its Akita Bunko imprint on March 28, 1994. On November 11...
been published in both physical and digital formats, with volume 1 of the bunkobon edition of the former and volume 1 of the latter including the previously...
Ōta confirmed on Twitter that the novelizations would be re-released in bunkobon editions. The re-releases were published by Seikaisha with new cover art...
Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics ranked 22nd in the bunkobon category, and 11th in the new work category. Salad bowl (cultural idea)...
Global Information
