Lit. one chou 丁. One folded page of a printed
book during the Edo period. Because only one side of a sheet was printed the sheet
was then folded in half with the printed surface outwards. The loose edges of
the folded sheets were sewn together at the spine leaving the fold uncut on the
outside, which might be considered the reverse of Western practice. The number
of chou in a traditional printed book was thus equal to the number of folded
sheets of paper assembled before binding. |