In 1887, founded the company in Yumi,
Hongō,
Tokyo (now part of Hongō,
Bunkyō, Tokyo). The company was named after
Itō Hirobumi, based on an alternate pronunciation of his
given name. Hakubunkan began publishing the magazine in 1887 as well. One of the most famous stories to appear in the magazine was (also known as
The Golden Demon) by
Ozaki Kōyō, who based two of the characters in the play on (son of the founder of the company) and Tomiyama Tadatsugu. Hakubunkan then established Tōkyōdō (the predecessor of
Tōkyōdō Shoten and
Tohan Corporation) in 1891. The following year, Tōkyōdō moved to Hongoku, a neighborhood of
Nihonbashi in Tokyo (now located in
Chūō). In 1893, Tōkyōdō became a domestic and foreign
news agency. At the beginning of 1895, Hakubunkan began publishing the general interest magazine . The Hakubunkan Printing Office (predecessor of
Kyodo Printing) was then established in 1896. In the years 1895-1933 Hakubunkan published , the "first large-scale literary magazine in Japan directed at a mass audience". Its early contributors included
Kawakami Bizan,
Hirotsu Ryurō,
Kosugi Tengai,
Izumi Kyoka and
Higuchi Ichiyo. To celebrate its fifteenth
anniversary, Hakubunkan opened the free
private (now the Sankō Library) on June 15, 1902. The library is located in the
Shiba Park neighborhood of
Minato Ward in Tokyo. Due to the
Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, the building which housed the headquarters of Hakubunkan was destroyed by fire, and the company relocated to the Tozaki area of
Koishikawa, Tokyo (now part of
Bunkyō Ward). After the magazine
Taiyō ceased publication in 1927, Hakubunkan continued to operate in the red, finally splitting into three companies in 1948: Hakuyūsha, Kōyūsha, and Kōbunkan. Hakuyūsha began using the Hakubunkan name again in 1949 before changing it again to Hakubunkan Shinsha in 1950. ==Magazines==