Kojima Chiyomatsu (小島千代松)

Kojima Chiyomatsu (小島千代松; July 1865 - November 1927) was a Japanese bookseller and publisher based in Hakodate on Hokkaido at the turn of the 20th century. Kojima was born in Ōmi Province (now Shiga Prefecture) in central Japan. His parents died at a young age and he went to apprentice at a merchant's trading house at age nine. At age sixteen, he moved to Tokyo and tried selling kimono and opening his own grocery business but failed at both. Kojima then began peddling books to make ends meet and traveled widely throughout Japan, from Hokkaido to Ryukyu, to reach customers. Finally, in 1894, sensing the business opportunities on Japan's northern frontier, he settled in Hakodate and opened the Kojima Taiseidō (小島大盛堂) bookshop. Kojima quickly became a leading bookseller in the city and in August 1899 founded the Hakodate Booksellers Association (函館書籍商組合), of which he was elected as a director. The business continued to grow, with Kojima becoming the largest bookseller in Hokkaido, selling guidebooks, maps, postcards, and oiwake-bushi (traditional Japanese songs). In 1901, Kojima also began publishing his own guidebook for Hokkaido (北海道名所案内). During and after the Russo-Japanese War, given the proximity of the Russian threat for Hokkaido, Kojima found a ready audience for patriotic / nationalistic material. His publishing business could not compete with larger operations in the early Showa era and he instead returned exclusively to bookselling.