How to bind books with the fukurotoji method
05/18/26: This was one of the blog posts I wrote for a job interview. As such, the tone of voice is very promotional and may not reflect my full opinions. Regardless, there weren't any other English pages about the topic (or at least they seem to exclusively refer to the ancient method) so I'm sharing it here.
Fukurotoji (袋とじ pouch binding) is considered the easiest method of hand-binding a book in Japan. It's a traditional binding method found in ancient Asian texts and is still used today in specific cases. Unlike most bookbinding methods, fukurotoji doesn't involve double-sided printing. Instead, single-sided sheets of paper are folded in half and arranged in chronological order. This makes it one of the simplest binding methods for beginners.
Image: tkhato20
Use Cases for Fukurotoji
- Contract binding: In Japan, contracts and other important documents may be bound through fukurotoji. This is to prevent the content of the documents from being tampered with.
- Magazines: To prevent customers from browsing in-store, magazines may use fukurotoji which requires the reader to buy the book and cut open pages manually. This is particularly relevant when it comes to adult magazines, where more explicit images are kept on the interior of the 'pouch'.
- Copybon: Because fukurotoji can be easy to set up without needing special tools or complex calculations, it is suggested as a simple method for binding handmade dojinshi.
Fukurotoji Tutorial
Image: CLIP STUDIO
Though the modern preparation and assembly of fukurotoji books differs from the traditional method, the general process remains the same:
- Arrange two A5 portrait pages onto a single A4 landscape page. It's important to note that any content on the left/right ends of the pages won't be visible, so you can't put anything too close to the edge.
- Repeat this first step for all pages of your book in chronological order.
- Print out each A4 page single-sided.
- Fold each page in half so that the printed side is facing outwards.
- Stack all of the pages of the book in order. This is the book interior.
- Fold an A4 sheet of paper in half. This is the book cover.
- Insert the book interior inside the book cover so that the exposed edge of the interior is against the folded edge of the cover.
- Close the book, and staple it on the outside along the folded edge of the cover.
Image: well-corp
It's also possible to replace steps 6~8 with a different set of steps for binding that's more suitable for longer length documents:
- Staple the book interior on the exposed edge.
- Cut a strip of paper to cover the spine.
- Glue this strip of paper over the staples, wrapping it around the exposed edge of the book.
There are different variations on this paper strip method that are increasingly complex as they're used to prevent tampering with formal documents like contracts. BACK OFFICE EVOLUTION explains more in detail on the process. Regardless of which method you go with, you now know how to make your own easily bound fukurotoji book!