MUJI BOOKS　
Special Exhibition
“The Hito to Mono”
Ayako Miyawaki

MUJI BOOKS has promoted a life enriched by books under the concept “Timeless Words, Inspiring Words.”  For us, the printed book is not just content but it has an important physical presence—an object that takes its place within a space. Unlike fleeting digital information, printed books are tangible, layered, and grow and age with us.

MUJI BOOKS began in 2015 with a bookstore at MUJI Canal City Hakata, featuring approximately 30,000 carefully selected titles alongside MUJI products. As the project expanded to stores across Japan, we came to believe that selecting books alone was not enough—we also wanted to create them. This led to the launch of the paperback series Hito to Mono (“People and Things”) in 2017. 

The Hito to Mono (“People and Things”) series presents writers, poets, filmmakers, and other creators as individuals in their everyday lives. Each volume weaves together essays and visual works with the objects they cherish and glimpses of their living environments.The books themselves embody MUJI’s approach to making things. The dust jacket has been omitted, the obi band is reimagined as a product tag, and the offcuts are repurposed as bookmarks—design decisions that treat the book itself as a carefully considered product while reflecting MUJI’s philosophy of making things.
Now celebrating its twenty-fourth volume, the Hito to Mono (“People and Things”) series presents its first exhibition dedicated to the traces of everyday life. On this occasion, diaries, cherished tools, and other personal belongings evoke the presence of Miyawaki Ayako’s life and creative practice. 

The Hito to Mono (“People and Things”) series offers encounters with people, things, and words. Bearing only a name on each cover—as if quietly handing you a business card—these books invite unexpected encounters. We hope they will inspire visitors to rediscover the enduring possibilities of the printed book.

MUJI BOOKS