Dojinshi: editing and publishing on one’s own terms

Publication decisions

An individual or circle chooses content, edits the work, funds production and arranges distribution. Creators decide print runs and manage stock; some professional writers and artists publish outside commercial commissions. Original fiction, manga, criticism, travel writing and railway research illustrate the range alongside work based on existing stories or characters.

Photocopied books and samples

COMITIA accepts books made by photocopying pages and binding them. A work sold for the first time at its Tokyo events normally requires one submitted sample. The creator sells copies at a table, while the organiser keeps the submitted sample.

Circulating literary magazines and print

The Kenyusha group’s Garakuta Bunko began in 1885 as a handwritten circulating magazine before moving into print and public sale. Literary circles used magazines as shared publication spaces: Shirakaba began in 1910 after three circulating magazines joined forces.

Postwar manga contributor networks

Postwar manga developed networks through Manga Shonen (1947), the contributors’ publication Manga Kenkyu (1954), and COM’s reader networks from 1967. When COM closed in 1972, former participants helped produce independent successor magazines, connecting correspondence and circle activity with new publications.

Different event rules

Comic Market began in 1975, bringing circles and readers together to distribute and discuss their work. COMITIA, founded in 1984, provides another kind of event: it accepts original work, including manga, fiction and criticism, while excluding derivative work from its sales.

From a criticism circle to Comic Market

The criticism circle Meikyu helped establish Comic Market. Meeting notes, publications and a leaflet for the first 1975 event, presented by Meiji University’s Yonezawa Library, trace a move from commentary and correspondence into event organisation. About 700 general participants attended the first meeting, exchanging publications through a market outside ordinary commercial distribution.

Events, specialist shops, mail and direct sales provide routes for circulation; digital editions add others. A 2008 account by Comic Market organisers describes preserving submitted samples since the first event. COMITIA also used samples for reading meetings and recommendations, giving briefly circulated publications further opportunities to be read. Preserving these collections requires cataloguing the books and arranging access for readers.

Permission to sell at an event is separate from permission to adapt someone else’s work. Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs explains that creating a derivative work generally requires permission for reproduction or adaptation; public distribution is distinct from private enjoyment. COMITIA’s original-work rule does not determine whether a derivative book offered elsewhere has the relevant permission.

The Touhou Project rules updated on 31 May 2024 allow personal fan activity within stated conditions, require identification as derivative work, and list permitted channels including dojinshi events and specialist shops. Misleading readers into treating a work as official and reusing another fan creator’s work without permission are prohibited. Commercial corporate activity and unlisted uses require separate contact. These guidelines apply to Touhou Project fan works.