I recently went to Bungaku Furi Ma, Japan’s literary flea market, for the first time.
Held at Tokyo Big Sight, the venue was packed with people and books—zines, essays, fiction, memoirs, and hand-bound experiments in paper and ink.
I hadn’t planned to buy anything.
But the longer I stayed, the more I felt drawn in.
Before I knew it, I was holding several books in my arms: a guide to writing on note, a semi-autobiographical novel set in São Paulo (my hometown), and back issues of a literary magazine from a major publisher. I was having fun.
And then I saw it: the bear fur.
A young man had laid a thick, real pelt across his table.
“Would you like to touch this?” he asked with a calm smile.
It was soft and heavy. Real.
He explained that the fur came from a bear he had hunted himself.
He had moved to Akita prefecture (north-east of Japan) to become a matagi—a traditional hunter who lives close to nature.
He now hunts bears, tans hides, and makes leather goods.
But more than that, he writes books—firsthand accounts of his life, from disassembling a bear carcass to reflecting on what it means to live as a hunter in modern Japan.
I ended up buying two of his books.
What struck me afterward was how natural the whole interaction felt.
The fur wasn’t just decoration—it was a silent invitation. I hadn’t consciously realized it at the time, but he had created a narrative pathway: the touch of the fur drew me in, the conversation gave it shape, and the books gave it meaning.
It wasn’t loud or flashy. It was thoughtful, physical, and deeply human.
As I was about to leave, I asked him one last question.
“Do you still feel scared when you encounter a bear in the mountains?”
“Yes,” he said. “Every time. I never get used to it.”
That answer has stayed with me more than anything else I picked up that day.
Out of all the clever titles and beautiful layouts I saw at the fair, what lingers is this: a quiet, real moment that stirred something inside me.
Japan is often said to be a country that loves books. But maybe what it really loves is the feeling—when a story reaches out and touches you back. ■
Image in the original: Books I bought
First published on Substack on May 29, 2025 (JST). Archived here as part of the Fabio Caipirinha permanent archive (published on this site: Oct 15, 2026). Images from the original are omitted here pending rights clearance. Original: https://fabiocaipirinha.substack.com/p/a-bear-pelt-and-a-book-what-i-brought
Cover image: Tokyo Big Sight at night (CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons — source)
