ABSTRACT
The letters in the Japanese syllabary, known as kana, are uniformly short, like the Greek mora. We have only four or five varieties of paper; in Japan they have more than fifty. The Japanese knew how to make paper from rags but preferred paper made from tree bark and shrubs. As noted above, Alcock sent over sixty different kinds of Japanese paper to the International Exhibition in London in 1862. In Kochi Prefecture, which is famous for its handmade paper, Japanese artisans still make some of the highest-quality paper in the world, employing methods that go back to the sixteenth century, including beating the still unfinished paper with poles. Writing on paper held by the hand releases a different, connected sensibility physically that is not there when writing on a desk or the floor, where Japanese calligraphy is usually done. It may be difficult for the reader to gather from Frois' description how Japanese books were bound.
