Students on the V&A / RCA History of Design Postgraduate Programme can enrich their learning experience by contributing to live museum projects. In this series, we share some of the exciting discoveries made by students who helped to rehome the National Art Library’s large collection of children’s books when it moved to V&A Storehouse earlier this year.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to spend time in the V&A Storehouse on an auditing project for the National Art Library’s children’s book collection. As I moved from shelf to shelf, I came across a seemingly nondescript brown box. Curious, I opened it to reveal a set of incredibly fascinating books.
These books are Takejiro Hasegawa’s Japanese Fairy Tale Series. They are adorned with beautiful Japanese woodblock print illustrations and feature famous Japanese fairy tales such as Momotaro and The Tongue-Cut Sparrow, translated into English. What drew me to these books, however, is the feel of their pages.
These books are made of Chirimen-gami (crepe paper), which is known for its crinkled, fabric-like texture. Hasegawa began producing Chirimen-bon (crepe paper books) in 1889, but crepe paper has been produced in Japan since at least 1800 and has been used to create crepe paper prints known as Chirimengami-e or Chirimen-e.
The process of creating crepe paper from plain paper is complex, making books such as Hasegawa’s Fairy Tale Series costly to purchase. First, text and illustrations are printed onto plain paper. To create the crinkled texture of the crepe paper, the plain paper is then dampened and rolled up. Next, it is compressed in a press specifically made for the preparation of crepe paper. Pressing the paper not only gives it an intriguing texture but also increases the durability of the paper itself, providing it with the flexibility and suppleness that is comparable to Chirimen fabric —a fabric with a crinkled texture traditionally used to make kimono and other objects such as Furoshiki (wrapping cloth).
The book is bound using Fukuro toji (pouch-binding), which is a traditional Japanese binding style. To create this style of binding, the book pages are folded with their illustrations and text facing outward. The loose sides of the pages are then secured at the spine. The spine is secured using Yamato toji (Yamato binding), also known as Musubi toji (Knot binding), in which a string or ribbon secures the pages at two points.
Hasegawa began publishing crepe paper books shortly after Japan opened trade, following nearly 300 years of isolation. This led to a wave of interest in Japanese art in Europe known as ‘Japonisme’. Hasegawa’s use of distinctly Japanese binding and printing styles made his Japanese Fairy Tale Series popular amongst his foreign clientele.
Further Reading
Allison O’Connell, ‘Takejiro Hasegawa’s Fairy Tale Series: Japanese crepe paper books’, The La Trobe Journal, 105 (2020) Yukari Hayashida, ‘Wrinkles in Time: Crepe-Paper Books in Watson Library’, The MET Museum, 2016, https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/crepe-paper
To see what else V&A/RCA History of Design students have been up to, read our other blog posts or check our pages on the RCA website. You can even find out how to apply for 2026/2027 admission to MA V&A/RCA History of Design here.
What stood out most here is how much the physical form of a book can deepen the story itself. The texture, printing style, and careful design make these crepe paper books feel like art you can hold, not just read. There is something memorable about that kind of object. Finding an old illustrated book at a market once gave me the same feeling, where the look and feel already told part of the story before I even opened it. That is why Hasegawa’s work feels so special. Even small details carry emotion, much like keeping a postcard, a pressed flower, or even searching for a fredericksburg phone number scribbled somewhere.