Japanese Book History: A View from USC Libraries

A Book of Mimicry

Kowairo hayagaten (1831) is a book explaining how to mimic the voices of famous kabuki actors, celebrities of Edo period (1600-1868) popular culture. As with the majority of popular books at this time it was woodblock printed on thin, soft kōzo paper and bound in the pouch (fukurotōji) format. In pouch binding the text and illustrations are written or printed on one side of a single leaf of paper, which is then folded in half and bound at the open end. Since the pages are bound at the center, and the edge of the page is folded, the pages form a pouch. The pages are bound using paper spills and the book covers are then attached using thread.

This book is an example of the sophistication and intricacy of layout and design for woodblock printed illustrated pouch books in the Edo period. To create a single illustration running across the two page spread the image had to be printed in two halves, ie: the right page is the left half of one leaf, and the left page is the right half of another leaf. Once bound, the two halves of the leaves come together to form the image, with the reverse side of each leaf forming the preceding and following pages.

We get a sense of how popular a book like this was from the wear and tear caused to the paper and ink at the bottom corners of the page where avid readers thumbed through the book many times, and also through the use of phonetic glossing. Written Japanese uses a mixture of Chinese characters (kanji) and phonetic characters (kana). For difficult to read Chinese characters, and in popular books aimed at those with lower levels of literacy, phonetic script is used to make notations in small font which run alongside the main text. This phonetic glossing tell a reader how to read (or "voice") the Chinese characters. 

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