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A History of Fabric Book Covers

Before the 16th century, fabric covers were made of silk gauze (ra or usuginu) or something close to it. Silk covers were used in such exceptional books as scrolls to be presented to the emperor. The development of the tea ceremony in the 16th century (Azuchi-Momoyama period), led to a fad for Chinese silk and other expensive imports from China, and before long different types of silk began to be used to make book covers. In addition to new books, silk covers were also used to replace damaged or soiled covers of pre-16th-century books.

Book are not always made only of paper. Book covers, for instance, were often made of fabric. Kire (fragments) are scraps of ancient fabric.

In the video, the following types of fabrics are introduced:

Ra or usuginu (silk gauze): Some Heian examples of books with covers made of ra survive.
Kinran : silk with pattern woven in gold thread. The first examples were imported from China in the Kamakura period (1185-1333); production in Japan began in the Muromachi period.
Donsu (“silk damask”): silk with designs created by using threads of different color for the warp and the weft. Like kinran, it was initially imported from China and then production started in Japan.
Nishiki (“brocade”): General term for embroidered silk. The earliest examples date from the 5th century; produced in Japan since the Nara period (710-794 CE).
Kinran-nishiki (“golden brocade”): silk with pattern woven from gold thread of different tones.

A History of Fabric Book Covers

Before the 16th century, fabric covers were made of silk gauze (ra or usuginu) or something close to it. Silk covers were used in such exceptional books as scrolls to be presented to the emperor. The development of the tea ceremony in the 16th century (Azuchi-Momoyama period), led to a fad for Chinese silk and other expensive imports from China, and before long different types of silk began to be used to make book covers. In addition to new books, silk covers were also used to replace damaged or soiled covers of pre-16th-century books.

Watch the video to look at some examples.