Book breaking the Historical Chronicle of the Founding of Great Japan
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Leonardo Wolfe
May 22, 2026, 8:40:25 PM (6 days ago) May 22
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Dear members,
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I recently acquired a complete set of the Meiji period editions below, and they are in a similar, if not better, condition:
https://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/he13/he13_02750/index.html
Save for the occasional corner fold, none of the pages are torn, but books such as these have extremely thin and fragile paper.
I'm currently working in the field of Japanese woodblock prints where book breaking is quite a common practice; however, I'm on the fence as to whether I should keep the books intact or not. The alternative would be to mount the individual images (some as diptychs).
Personally, I'm more inclined towards book breaking so that they can be appreciated without fear of damage, but I would effectively be damaging their original form in the process.
Keeping in mind that these aren't Edo period first editions, what are your thoughts?
Kind regards,
Leonardo Wolfe
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I recently acquired a complete set of the Meiji period editions below, and they are in a similar, if not better, condition:
https://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/he13/he13_02750/index.html
Save for the occasional corner fold, none of the pages are torn, but books such as these have extremely thin and fragile paper.
I'm currently working in the field of Japanese woodblock prints where book breaking is quite a common practice; however, I'm on the fence as to whether I should keep the books intact or not. The alternative would be to mount the individual images (some as diptychs).
Personally, I'm more inclined towards book breaking so that they can be appreciated without fear of damage, but I would effectively be damaging their original form in the process.
Keeping in mind that these aren't Edo period first editions, what are your thoughts?
Kind regards,
Leonardo Wolfe
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