Side-stitched books of China, Korea and Japan in western collections

The side-stitched book structure was the workhorse of Chinese, Korean and Japanese publishing industries from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. The strengths and vulnerabilities of the materials and the books themselves played a significant role in the different choices made in China, Korea and Japan for their construction and their conservation. The majority of books in Far Eastern rare book collections are these paper and thread bindings, meant to be shelved horizontally. Western repositories devised a wide range of storage and treatment solutions for soft-covered books, some successful, some damaging and often with little recognition of the differences between Chinese, Korean and Japanese styles. This article describes the general characteristics of, and differences between, Chinese, Korean and Japanese side-stitched books, provides handling and storage suggestions, and includes instructions for constructing a wrapper for storage in western collections. © 2009 Icon, The Institute of Conservation.