Traditional Japanese bindings are a bit different from the Western bindings we are accustomed to. The easiest way to describe them, is that they are used exactly the opposite from how we use our books. They are opened from left to right and read from right to left in columns. A book that recently came through the lab was bound in the opposite manner too – the pages were folded, but the loose edges comprised the spine with the folds at the fore edge. The paper was a soft, medium weight Mulberry, the same type of paper we use for mending.
Japanese Bookbinding - Legatoria Tradizionale Giapponese - Fukuro
Tomioka Eisen A Scolding (Ochiyo), illustration from Bugei
worm holes - < 1900 - Seller-Supplied Images - Books - AbeBooks
Books — Sengoku Daimyo
Japanese books - SamuraiWiki
Japan - BOUND BY TRADITION
Japan - BOUND BY TRADITION
Japanese Bookbinding: Instructions From A Master Craftsman
Japan - BOUND BY TRADITION
The Pillar: Traditional Japanese Fukurotoji Bookbindings
Books — Sengoku Daimyo
Japanese Bookbinding, Fukuro-toji: Making the Covers
Fig. 2 Fukurotoji binding showing silk reinforcement at corner