The photo at top left is the Touji book opened to show the structure of the "folded books" (shouhon). Paper is pleated to create pages, and the end-pages are pasted to the front and back boards. The front of the book is the right-hand board.
 
Since the paper is doubled, both sides of a page can be used for inscriptions. Only very heavy inking creates the danger of soaking through to the opposite side. On the other hand, facing pages will bleed onto one another unless a slip of paper is inserted in between. For this purpose a temple or shrine will provide either a piece of rice paper, a printed information sheet, or a piece of a telephone book page cut to size. Sometimes the insert is in the form of an information sheet about the institution. A common insert is an essay entitled "About goshuin ." See a translation on the calligraphy Introduction page.
 
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Mrs. Andou, who gave me the first of the seal books shown below. Her family in Kamakura have long treasured their library of calligraphy, which extends back many years, and their interest in it remains fresh. The haiku at the bottom of the calligraphy Introduction page alludes to them and to other friends who helped me gather these leaves, as well as to the people who wrote them.