This project aimed at grasping the full picture of the activities undertaken by the network of publishers
editors
and writers involved with the Zenkoku Shobo
a publishing house founded in Osaka in the 1940s
which came to play a very important role during and after the Occupation
comparable to the role played by much bigger publishing houses. As part of this project
we carried out a survey of all of Zenkoku Shobo’s publications
from its founding and until around the year 1970; we analysed in detail the literary magazine “Shin-bungaku”
published between 1944-1949; and we examined the documents found in the archives of the late Tanaka Hidekichi
the founder of the above-mentioned publishing house. This investigation has been instrumental in shedding light on the relationship between literature and print media during the post-war period of transition
as well as laid the foundation for publishing the results of this study in the near future.
