A One-of-a-Kind Cultural Complex in the Heart of Tokyo

Located in Tokyo’s stylish Daikanyama district, the bookshop DAIKANYAMA TSUTAYA BOOKS has a grandiose vision. This complex, which comprises three buildings connected by walkways, was designed by the firm Klein Dytham Architecture in 2011. It houses a wing devoted to books, another for music, and a third with films and magazines, all operated by the Japanese chain Tsutaya. 

In this literary establishment, with a façade made up of a multitude of white interwoven T shapes in a nod to Tsutaya, time seems to stand still. The books are divided into six categories: cookery, travel, motoring, architecture and design, arts and human sciences, and literature. The shelves are stocked with both Japanese and Western titles. Visitors can also find over 30,000 issues of publications from all over the world, grouped together on ‘magazine street’, along with a fine selection of vintage Japanese magazines, particularly from the 1960s and 1970s, like Heibon Punch and Taiyo. 

A relaxing space

Music lovers are also well catered for, with over 120,000 albums of jazz, classical, rock from 1960 to 1980, and pop music that visitors can listen to on the premises while sitting comfortably in soft armchairs with a view of the trees surrounding the building. 

DAIKANYAMA TSUTAYA BOOKS has won numerous awards for its architecture, including one for the world’s best shopping centre at the World Architecture Festival in 2013 and the Grand Prize at the Design for Asia Awards, also in 2013.

More information about DAIKANYAMA TSUTAYA BOOKS can be found on its website.
Address: 16-15 Sarugakucho, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0033, Japan