A stationery shop named Shihodo located in Ginza. The meaning of Shihodo is four treatures place: paper, ink, brush and ink stone.

In the hidden corner in Ginza, there is a venerable old stationery shop. The three-story building gave a sense of history, there was nothing run-down about it. It had style, but with restraint--there was something mysterious about the atmposhere. In front of the shop, there is a cylindrical mailbox in the brilliant vermilion.

The shop owner Ken is there welcome clients and invites them to the upper floor to write down a letter for someone. It ia place about three or four square meters with a wooden chair for one and a little coffee table.
Ken said, "Please take your time and write carefully. After all, handwritten characters have expressions. They have laughing faces, crying faces, angry faces, happy faces, kind faces...Your mood at the time will be expressed directly."

Touching stories set in and around a stationery shop. This book features five different protagonists: a young company employee, a hostess at an elegant club, the vice-captain of a high-school archery team, an aging businessman, and a formerly homeless sushi chef. Ken Takarada, who runs Shihodo Stationery with impeccable yet warm retail manners, helps each of them with more than just their stationery needs. Author Kenji Ueda dispenses information in a clever way that keeps the pages turning and has a keen eye for the interpersonal relationships that make up not only people's lives but community and contemporary society in Japan.