Chap, xvii.] CHINESE AND JAPANESE BOOKS. 



361 



no reason why such a folded book should not be at once 

 stitched at the back, and have the leaves cut. The book 

 would thus be rendered far more handy ; but the idea seems 

 never to have struck the Japanese. 



The folded form of book described, seems to represent 

 a first stage in improvement from the more ancient roll. 

 Japanese paintings and manuscripts are extremely common, 

 executed upon long rolls which are terribly tedious to unroll 

 and roll up again. The folded picture books, such as de- 

 scribed, may be pulled out into long strips, on which the pages 

 or drawings follow in regular order, just as on an ordinary roll. 

 Similarly, if ordinary printed Japanese and Chinese books were 

 unstitched, the double leaves might be unfolded, and, if pasted 

 on to a long strip, would follow one another consecutively on 

 the roll. 



It seems thus highly probable that the idea of the Chinese 



DIAGRAM SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT -OF THE CHINESE FOLDED BOOK 

 OUT OF THE ROLL. 



and Japanese book arose as an improvement on the roll ; and 

 that this is the reason why the leaves are all double, and the 

 paper printed only on one side. The ordinary paper used in 

 printing is possibly too thin to allow of both sides being printed 

 onj but there is plenty of thicker paper available in both 

 countries. Even when very thick paper is used in the folding 

 Japanese books, often one side only of the paper is made u.se 

 of. I have never seen an example with the front edges cut, 

 although I possess several folded books made of extremely 

 stout cardboard. The accompanying diagram will serve to 

 illustrate the development of the book from the roll. 



Nearly all Chinese and Japanese books are block books, 

 printed from wooden blocks, each of which contains four pages, 

 a pair of pages on each side. All the letters have to be carved 

 out on every wooden block, so it is as cheap or cheaper to fill 

 a page with illustrations as to fill it with characters. Hence, 



