Msakazu Nakai (1900-1952), the first vice-director of the National Diet Library, published many papers on the library. At the same time, he also wrote many small essays on publishing. His papers on the library and his essays on publishing are just reverse of each other. His thoughts on the library are famous for the slogan that we should transformsubstantial libraries into functional libraries, that is, libraries without walls, books and buildings. In this slogan, which was influenced by philosopher Ernst Cassirer, Nakai was said to have foreseen computer-networked libraries. But in his essays on publishing he was not at all functionalist. He expressed the expectation that new-projected public libraries would buy serious books which could not be sold enough in the market place. In these essays, he stuck to the idea of books as substatial entities.
These contradictory attitudes correspond to his two sides. On one side, he aimed to be established systematic theories and write books. And on the other side, he intended to break down systematic theories and deny books. Until now the latter side has been emphasized. But this article discusses the importance of the former side.
