“Wahon”: The History of the Japanese Book

Works Spread by Reader Copies

The Tale of Genji is now recognized around the world as a classic of Japanese literature, but when Murasaki Shikibu wrote it in the Heian period (794–1185), it was considered low in status. The story of how this masterpiece reached readers offers a way into the history of the wahon, or traditional Japanese book.

The flourishing of Buddhism in Japan in the eighth century led to the production of many sacred books. Artisans who hand-copied sutras came to take responsibility for the whole binding process. By the middle of the Heian period, paper makers developed strong, high-quality materials, and formal books in literary Chinese (kanbun)—including Buddhist texts, historical records, and nobles’ diaries—were produced as makimono or handscrolls. These were long rolls of paper that readers slowly unwound to reveal the text, and were carefully stored for centuries. Woodblock printing was also used in and around temples, but the technology did not widely circulate.

Meanwhile, as antique book expert Hashiguchi Kōnosuke explains, monogatari or fictional “tales” were passed on orally, and for some time nobody thought it necessary to write them down. In the Heian period, the monogatari were also associated with malicious mononoke spirits, which speaking the tales was believed to subdue.

Hashiguchi Kōnosuke is the second-generation owner of the Seishindō bookstore in Jinbōchō, Tokyo, dealing with traditional books and calligraphy. After working in publishing, in 1974 he took a position at the store founded by his father-in-law, succeeding him as manager in 1984. He has written a number of books connected with traditional books, including Wahon e no shōtai (An Invitation to Japanese Books). (© Nippon.com)

“The idea of making monogatari into books arose in the mid-Heian period, around the start of the eleventh century, when the Tale of Genji was being created,” Hashiguchi says. “Writers like Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon wrote from the start with the goal of being read. At first, people who wanted to read the works copied them out, and then they passed them on or lent them to others.”

Women were not required to write in literary Chinese, so works by female authors, such as Genji and Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book, were written in the kana script developed in Japan. Kana books had lower status, and rather than makimono, they were made into bound texts known as sōshi.

Murasaki Shikibu’s diary describes how she asked skilled calligraphers to copy the text and had it bound.

A version of the “Wakamurasaki” chapter of the Tale of Genji copied by Fujiwara no Teika, which was discovered in 2019. It appears to show his later revisions. (© Jiji)

“Rather than writing the whole work in one go, Murasaki Shikibu gradually added chapters, so it was constructed like a series,” Hashiguchi says. “When new readers copied it, they made lots of mistakes, and some even changed the story. As there’s no extant original, we can’t know what the original text was. It was only 200 years later that the poet and scholar Fujiwara no Teika started working on a revised text based on the different versions, and ultimately fixed it as having fifty-four chapters.”

Growth of Reader Culture

In the Muromachi period (1333–1568), the number of makimono works began declining, and itotoji books bound using thread became the mainstream. When Kyoto revived in the sixteenth century under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, following its devastation in the Ōnin War of 1467–77, citizens known as machishū, including merchants and artisans, formed self-governed communities, and book dealers emerged among them, principally handling antique works.

Typographic printing was introduced from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. Printing by temples of not only Buddhist scriptures but also literary works like the Tale of Ise in hiragana editions was revolutionary, but there were technological limitations.

“Unlike in Europe, where printing could get by through the arrangement of a small set of letters, in Japan there was the need to prepare type for several thousand kana and kanji,” Hashiguchi says. “As the reading public grew, it was impossible to keep up using typographic printing, leading to a rediscovery of the benefits of woodblock printing. This made additional runs easy, and the sturdy printing blocks could be used for centuries. Dealers who had formerly only handled old books took the opportunity to set up stores and try their hand at publishing.

“The seventeenth century is notable for the growth of reading culture. Before that, it was mainly centered on study by Buddhist priests and court nobles. In the Edo period [1603–1868], samurai began to study, and a merchant class developed. These people came to enjoy reading, becoming fascinated not only by technical texts but also fiction like Genji and essays like Tsurezuregusa, which they read in woodblock versions.

“Dramatic oral tradition by itinerant medieval performers, such as sekkyō-bushi [sermon-ballads], was written down and published in books, and became incorporated into scripts for bunraku puppet theater and kabuki, which themselves were published. Kabuki was popular in Edo [now Tokyo] and bunraku in Kansai, and there were lots of collaborations, such as Chikamatsu Monzaemon writing new bunraku works for publication.”

Following Teika’s efforts to produce an authoritative version, many annotated editions of the Tale of Genji also appeared. Having been regarded as inferior in the Heian period, it had now achieved its status as a literary classic.

A 1654 illustrated edition of the Tale of Genji shows a scene from “Wakamurasaki.” (Courtesy Sugiyama Jogakuen University Digital Library.)

“Genji became a book that merchant and samurai women received when they got married,” notes Hashiguchi. “The text was written out by calligraphers, and the books were beautifully bound. It must have been difficult to acquire all fifty-four chapters without being considerably wealthy. Commoners could buy relatively cheap woodblock versions. These always had illustrations, and many illustrators competed to have their work included.”

Demand for Popular Literature

In the Edo period, some publishers produced serious books on technical topics or related to Buddhism, while others aimed cheap volumes at a mass market. The latter group grew in Kyoto through publication of puppet theater works and in Osaka via the popularity of the writer Ihara Saikaku.

As commercial publishing flourished in these cities, pirated and plagiarized versions flooded the market. Publishers grouped together to call on the authorities to crack down on this trade, in return for promises not to publish forbidden Christian or salacious materials. This led to the formation of publishers’ guilds, joining which gave the rights to publish and sell books. Publishing rights could be freely traded between publishers, with exchanges being established for this purpose.

In Edo, popular publishers became established later, but gradually evolved independently from those in Kansai. At first, they mainly produced works with red covers for children or with black covers for older boys and young men, but around the middle of the eighteenth century, when Edo established its own guilds, the business came to center on works for adults with yellow covers. Like today’s manga, they were focused on pictures, with text showing the characters’ words and explanation of the scene. They sold for the modern equivalent of several hundred yen.

“Popular literature developed during the Edo period, and many amusing books were produced making generous use of puns and parody,” Hashiguchi explains. “The publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō was at the center of all this. He discovered artists like Kitagawa Utamaro and Tōshūsai Sharaku, along with the fiction writer Santō Kyōden. When Tsutaya was active in the late eighteenth century, Edo’s publishing culture was at its peak.”

A 1793 work by Santō Kyōden, Kanninbukuro ojime no zendama (Evil Spirits, Bagsful of Patience), which was published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō. It shows Tsutaya (at right) visiting Kyōden (at left) at his home to pick up a manuscript. (Courtesy National Diet Library)

Hashiguchi says, “The reason these kinds of books sold well was due to the rise in literacy in Japan. Terakoya schools made a major contribution. The later it got into the Edo period, the greater the reading population was.

“As well as publishing and selling new books, people in the business also handled old books. My research indicates that in the Edo period, there was more trade in antiquarian books than new,” Hashiguchi notes. “This was because of the development of bibliophile collectors among shogunate retainers and daimyō. Books from long ago were rare and expensive, making for good trade. As places where old books were gathered, publishing rights exchanges also became markets for these items.”

Thus, diversification was common in the book business. The demand for popular literature led to growth in businesses that lent books to customers, and Hashiguchi says there are records to show there were 656 in Edo in 1808.

Western-Style Books Become Standard

After the fall of the shogunate in 1868, its retainers and the daimyō sold or otherwise disposed of sometimes considerable libraries, and the price of antiquarian books plummeted. Foreign aficionados living in Japan from around the last years of the shogunate to the early Meiji era (1868–1912) were quick to take advantage. People like the British diplomat and interpreter Ernest Satow and Tokyo Imperial University Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, one of many foreign specialists hired by the Meiji government, were among those fascinated by classic books who acquired huge libraries of works.

Legally the Meiji government categorized old books as secondhand or antique, and thereby quite separate from new books. The Home Ministry required notification of publication, and guild membership was no longer required to acquire publishing rights. This brought changes to the book industry.

Hashiguchi explains. “A system developed in which notifications about new books went to the Home Ministry, while those for old titles went to the police. If you did the paperwork, you could trade both. But the government gradually tightened censorship of publishing and the police more closely supervised sales of antiquarian books with the aim of preventing trade in stolen books. It became more difficult to do business in both old and new books.

“With the adoption of letterpress printing, Western binding and paper became standard, replacing Japanese varieties. By 1887, woodblock Japanese books had dramatically decreased amid a flood of Western-style printed books, and most of those who’d been dealing in books since the Edo period quit the business.”

A national distribution network for school textbooks and magazines became established, and publishing, new book sales, distribution, and trade in old books became separate businesses, a situation that has continued to the present day.

“Today’s antiquarian book dealers specialize as a survival strategy.” Hashiguchi says. “There are 130 such stores in Jinbōchō now, and they each specialize in different fields from classics to modern literature, film, manga, sports, and so on, like the shelves in a library. In a way, the whole area is one big library.”

The Seishindō bookstore opened for business in 1930. (© Nippon.com)

Hashiguchi says the history of the wahon is a condensed expression of the Japanese love for books. “Murasaki Shikibu carefully chose the paper and made her Genji into a book from the burning desire to have everyone read it. It spread further as readers copied it, and became a beloved classic in the Edo period, whether as a beautifully bound handwritten copy or an illustrated woodblock edition. Meanwhile, Edo-period popular fiction brimming with invention attracted readers and some books were similar to today’s manga. People say that reading is in decline, but enjoying an ebook on a smartphone is a new form of reading, and there are books that are disposable and others that readers want to keep hold of. It’s the same now as it ever was. I’m sure that Japanese people’s love for books hasn’t essentially changed in over a thousand years.”

(Originally written by Itakura Kimie of Nippon.com and published in Japanese on April 26, 2024. Banner image: Detail from Jippensha Ikku’s 1802 Atariyashita jihondoiya [A Smash Hit for the Local Book Trade], which shows the production process for an Edo-period book. This illustration shows buyers crowding outside a store to obtain new books. Courtesy of the National Diet Library.)