Heibonsha (平凡社) is a Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo, which publishes encyclopedias, dictionaries and books in the fields of science and philosophy. Since 1945 it has also published books on art and literature. Similarly to the Iwanami Shoten and the Chikuma Shobō publishing houses, its publishing program is directed primarily at an academic audience and features well-illustrated publications. Heibonsha's head office is at 3-29 Kanda-jinbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051. In 1914 the educator Shimonaka Yasaburō (下中彌三郎) (1878-1961) founded the Heibonsha publishing house as a means of selling copies of his pocket encyclopedia That is Convenient: Pocket Advisor (や此は便利だ! : ポケツト顧問, Ya kore wa benri da: Poketsuto komon) to the general public. In 1923 it was converted into a public limited company. In 1924, in the wake of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, it began to publish books on a larger scale. In 1927, it began publishing the 60 volume Collection of Contemporary Popular Literature (現代大衆文学全集, Gendai taishū bungaku senshū) as a series of budget small format books, which have been dubbed a series of "1 yen books" (一円本). Beginning in 1928 there followed the publication of its Encyclopedia (大百科事典, Daihyakka jiten) in 28 volumes, the final volume of which appeared in 1934. More information...
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