Japanese books

The cover of a Noh utaibon published in Tokyo in 1925, and bound in the traditional yotsume-toji manner.

Traditional Japanese books are bound in a variety of ways.

Styles of Traditional Bookbinding

Books were traditionally bound in a variety of ways.

• The handscroll is perhaps the most traditional form of assembling sheets of paper (or silk) into a larger whole. Sheets or sections were arranged horizontally, pasted (or stitched, in the case of silk) to one another, end to end, and wrapped around a wooden dowel to form a scroll.

• Folding albums, called orihon, are also called "accordion books." Sheets of paper, each folded vertically, are pasted together at the edges, forming a collection which can be opened either one page (one "opening") at a time, or, stretched out to reveal several openings at once.

• Butterfly binding (detchôsô or kochôsô) is somewhat similar to accordion binding, but involves pasting the pages together all at one end, forming a spine, such that the outer edges (at the left and right extreme of each opening) are individual and free.

• Fukurotoji or yotsumetoji binding, also known as "stitch" or "pouch" binding, is perhaps the most common, and the most commonly associated with traditional Japanese books. Pages are folded such that the fold becomes the outside edge of the page; in other words, the left page of one opening, and the right page of the next opening, are two halves of the same sheet of paper - the outer edge of the page is in fact the fold between the two. This is known in Japanese as the hashira ("pillar") or hanshin ("heart of the printing block"), and often contains the title of the book, and the page number, printed right across the folded edge of what becomes the outer edge of a page of the book. The pages are then bound at their free-floating (non-folded) edges to form a spine, by poking holes through the pages and linking them with twisted pieces of paper called neji, or "screws." These hold the pages together to form the book. Covers are then affixed with string, stitched in a distinctive pattern around, usually, four holes. Taller books sometimes have five holes instead of four, and books bound in this way in China during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661-1722), have six. Those bound using a flat cord instead of silk thread are called by the term yamato-toji (lit. "Japanese binding").

Traditionally, book covers, particularly on fukurotoji books, were made of simple paper, or paper lining a somewhat thicker piece of card-board made from recycled paper. These outer covers were often burnished with a material called dôsa, made from alum and hide glue, which provided some protection for the books; covers were also often embossed, printed, painted, or burnished with simple patterns. These patterns were, sometimes, used exclusively by a single publisher, thus marking the book as having been produced by that publishing house. A paper slip known as a gedai ("outside title"), affixed to the front cover, often gives the title of the book, along with other information, such as the volume number within a series.

Not strong enough to stand vertically on a shelf like Western bindings, Japanese books were always meant to be stored horizontally (laid out flat on the shelf), or, in a stiff box called a chitsu, which then served the double purpose of also conveniently collecting multiple volumes together.

The inside of the front cover most often featured the title of the publication, in what is called a naidai ("inside title"), along with the name of the artist(s), author(s), and publisher. This information might, alternatively, be found on the first page of the book.

Binding Styles in the Meiji Period

In 1868, according to some sources, 100% of books produced in Japan were still wasôbon - that is, books bound in traditional Japanese bookbinding styles. Books on science, engineering, and similar subjects began to be published as yôsôbon (books bound in Western modes) early in the Meiji period, and by 1880, the majority of books on these subjects were bound in a Western manner. However, religious books, and those of certain other types, continued to be published as Japanese-style books for quite some time; as late as 1905, 44% of religious books were still wasôbon. It was not until 1886 that yôsôbon began to dominate, and in 1895, roughly 1/5th of the books published in Japan were still being bound in traditional styles. In fact, certain publishing niches related to the traditional arts, such as practice books (utaibon) for the Noh theatre, are still published as wasôbon today.