Marumizu-gumi Bookbinding Studio

Marumizu-gumi is a working bookbindery in Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, dedicated to traditional Japanese bookbinding, or wahon — the thread-sewn, washi-paper binding styles that predate Western case binding in Japan. The studio was established by bookbinder Nao Inoue and has operated under its current site since 2007, from a ground-floor space eight minutes on foot from Naka-itabashi station, open daily except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The studio runs on three legs: custom order-based binding work for clients, hands-on lessons in wahon technique explicitly open to beginners as well as experienced binders, and a shop selling Japanese binding papers, materials, and tools that the studio says it has "carefully examined/chosen." Its own published material walks through the varieties of Japanese bookbinding style and the traditional implements involved, functioning as both a working reference and a teaching aid for students who come through the door.

Wahon itself is a genuinely old craft lineage — the broader tradition of Japanese books bound by hand on washi paper traces back over a thousand years — and Marumizu-gumi is one of the few studios in Tokyo still practicing and teaching it as a hands-on, order-taking trade rather than a museum demonstration, with an online shop that keeps its materials available beyond the physical studio's limited opening hours.