Books Kinokuniya appeared at the Galleries Victoria seemingly out of the blue for me. Granted, I live in the suburbs, but a new bookstore in the centre of Sydney, is very hard to ignore! I remember walking in and being … overwhelmed, in all honesty. As far as I could see, all I could see were… books. This was my kid in a candy store moment — yeah, bookstores kind of do it for me!
The range the store carried was and still remains breathtaking — 300,000 books. Their range is … immense, to say the least — English to Japanese to German books, and manga, graphic novels and children’s literature. And of course, there’s a cafe too.
But, that’s not all — Kinokuniya comes with a history of supporting the arts wherever their stores open, and the Sydney store is no 
different. The gallery in the store exhibits art from local artists, and there’s a new exhibition every two weeks. Recently there was a photography exhibition by Uel Lim, which showed Australia through street photography.
I have spent many hours just getting lost in the store, just looking and adding to the list of books I have to read.
The very wonderful Valerie from the Sydney store was kind enough to answer some questions for me.
When I began researching the store for the interview, I learned about its rich history – the first one was opened in 1927 in Tokyo? That makes Kinokuniya 87 years old this year! Can you tell us a little about your history and what brought Kinokuniya to Sydney?
The first Kinokuniya bookstore was opened in January 1927 by former president Moichi Tanabe. It had 5 employees and was located in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo in a two-storey wooden building with a floor space of 125m2 (1,349sq.ft.) and an art gallery on the second floor.
In 1964, the bookstore’s headquarters was established in Shinjuku (the current Shinjuku Main Store Building), consisting of nine stories and had two underground floors. Kinokuniya continued to aggressively develop large-scale bookstores in major Japanese cities based on the corporate philosophy of providing customers with a wide variety of books and magazines.
The first overseas bookstore opened in San Francisco in 1969 and several other bookstores have since opened in the United States, including major stores in Los Angeles and New York.
Kinokuniya ventured into the Asia-Pacific market when it opened its first store in Singapore (Liang Court Store) in 1983. This would serve as a base for developing additional Asian outlets and store openings soon followed in Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
In 1996, Kinokuniya launched its first bookstore in Australia, located in Sydney’s Neutral Bay suburb. This was later re-located to its present day location on The Galeries shopping centre on George Street.
How did the Tokyo store begin its association with the arts? And, every Kinokuniya store aims to carry on that tradition of promoting the arts and artists?
The first ever Kinokuniya bookstore had an art gallery on its second floor, so even from inception Kinokuniya had a strong tradition of promoting the arts and artists, which we aim to carry on today. 
Kinokuniya believes that bookstores should function as centres for the promotion of culture and the arts and not merely as outlets for selling books so theatres and an art gallery are incorporated inside the bookstores where possible. The Shinjuku store boasts two theatres that aspire to promote the spirit of the dramatic arts, much like that of New York’s Broadway and the Kinokuniya Theatre Awards were established in 1966 to promote the development of the dramatic arts.
How does the Sydney store continue that association/aim of promoting the arts?
We have solid and ongoing relationships with partners such as The Sydney Opera House, The Japan Foundation, The Museum of Contemporary Art and various university student associations who we support through promoting their programs and sometimes providing sponsorship. And of course, we also showcase art exhibitions in our Wedge Gallery. This year in May we will be a featured exhibition with the Head On photography festival, and will be exhibiting the works of Ilona Stanska of Norway.
What sort of artists do you normally feature?
We normally feature local Sydney artists in our Wedge Gallery and try to support up-and-coming artists. Some recent examples include Chilean-Australian design duo Eggpicnic (below), illustrator and designer Heli Yang and the Higher Ground Studio collective (featuring Beastman, Ears, Max Berry and others). Now and again we also have local artists, illustrators or photographers who have published books exhibit in the gallery such as author/artist Lang Leav and photographer/blogger Louise Hawson. 
Is there any chance we could see Kinokuniya theatres soon? I think it would be amazing to see your store promote the arts like the Shinjuku store!
We currently have a gallery space in our Sydney store (Wedge Gallery). Though we would definitely love to have theatres like our sister store in Shinjuku, we are not quite there yet in our growth at this stage, and also in terms of pure physical space. That being said, I wouldn’t rule it out as a future possibility!
The range of comics, collectibles and books in the store never ceases to blow my mind – it seems never-ending, in a good way! What are the most popular genres in the store, and why do you think that is?
This is a complicated one, as it begs the question of how one would define a genre’s popularity. Also, within each genre there exists different markets and buying habits. For example, if you are looking purely at quantities sold, you might dismiss our Art & Design titles in comparison with another genre like Fiction which sells far more titles. However, bear in mind that Art & Design books are generally more costly and are consumed in a far different manner to a paperback fiction book. However, I would say that a genre that continues to do well for us is Graphic Novels and Manga. I think this is due to a combination of things: we are the only bookstore in Australia that so prominently features and supports comics and we have an experienced team that successfully connect customers with comics.
What are the popular anime/manga titles in the store?
Our consistently popular manga series are Naruto, One Piece and Attack on Titan. The Attack on Titan anime DVDs are also incredibly popular. However, the Western graphic novels do also sell in equal amounts to the manga. The most popular titles here would be Fables and all the Batman titles.
Of all the events the store holds, which one sticks out in your mind and why?
For me it would have to be the Tom Hiddleston event we held in October last year because of the number of fans who attended. Though this was not your traditional bookstore event as Tom is not an author but plays a movie character (Loki from the Thor movies) based on a comic character, this turned out to be the biggest event the Sydney store had ever seen! We had hundreds of people in store to see him, some of whom had travelled from interstate to be here. We host lots of different events here from kids’ parties to literary events to fan events like the one with Tom Hiddleston and the more recent event we had for the co-stars of Vampire Academy. Our motivation each time varies depending on the event, but we love having them and we believe that hosting events is important in providing our customers a point of difference in our store. Our modus operandi is not to simply and straightforwardly sell books, because these days anyone can go online to buy them, but also to create a sense of culture and community within our store. 
What does the future hold for Kinokuniya in Sydney and Australia?
We hope to see many more years of Kinokuniya Sydney and to stay true to our identity. To continue to provide unique and engaging in store experiences through interactive store displays and campaigns like our ‘Sketch Depot’ for Art Month last year and our ‘Book Love’ corner (http://on.fb.me/1iUaJEY) in February. And to always offer Sydney’s largest range of books and impeccable, personable and knowledgeable customer service. In terms of Australia? At this stage Kinokuniya does not have any solid plans, but perhaps one day in the future there might be another store in a different major city…
When someone leaves Kinokuniya, what do you want to be thinking about their visit to the store?
That real bookstores still exist.
And that’s Books Kinokuniya in Sydney. This week, the Sydney store will also be holding their 2014 Free Comic Day AND after party at Luna Park! I’ve been posting about their guest list thus far, but keep an eye on their Facebook, guests are still being announced!
Store site, Twitter and Facebook
