The Haruki Murakami Library (or Waseda International Literature House) opened on the campus of Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) in early 2021. The library, designed by famous Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, was not completely rebuilt but expanded and renovated from building No. 4 of Waseda University.
Building 4 originally housed the Tsubouchi Memorial Theater Museum, which Murakami frequented as a student. After being transformed into the Waseda International Literature Hall, it is hoped that it will facilitate research on Haruki Murakami's works, world literature and translation, as well as academic and cultural exchanges between researchers and students from around the world.
The library houses a vast archive of 3,000 personal notes, manuscripts, book reviews, a collection of Haruki Murakami's works translated into many languages, as well as tens of thousands of vinyl records he has collected over the years.
"I've been writing for nearly 40 years, accumulating so many manuscripts, documents, and newspaper clippings that I no longer have room to store them at home or in my office," Haruki Murakami explained when talking about his decision to donate his "collection" to Waseda University in 2018.
Haruki Murakami is an alumnus of Waseda University. However, he studied theater arts, not literature, and only began writing his first novel at the age of 29, long after leaving Waseda.
The Haruki Murakami Library also features a replica of the writer's desk, a radio studio, and a student-run cafe.
Rather than a traditional space dedicated to study, architect Kuma envisions the Library as a vibrant space where anyone, including Haruki Murakami himself, can come to discuss the writer's works, and the future of literature, over cups of coffee.
In 2021, to celebrate the opening of the Haruki Murakami Library, director Kei Shichiri made a short film about the building, to - as he put it - "explore the relationship between people and books, through the interplay of light and shadow".
