Plain Lab · notebook
Genko Yoshi Notebook
Genko yoshi paper: fixed cells for one character each, eighteen rows to the page at a 9.17 mm pitch.
Specification
- Trim
- 148 × 210 mm · 5.827 × 8.268 in
- Pages
- 120
- Leaves
- 60
- Sheets
- 30
- Signatures
- 6 × 20pp
- Spine
- 6.86 mm
- Paper
- white
- Ruling
- genko
- Ruling pitch
- 9.17 mm · 26.00 pt
- Rows per page
- 18
Genko yoshi replaces the running line with a grid of boxes, one character to a cell. The pitch runs 9.17 mm, eighteen rows to the page. The box does something a ruled line cannot: it holds the character to a fixed size instead of letting it grow or shrink across a line.
The cells do not care which script goes inside them. Kanji, kana, Hangul practised stroke by stroke, or a Latin hand drilled for consistency all sit inside the same box the same way. What the grid enforces is proportion, not language.
A box does not correct a stroke order or a proportion by itself. It only gives the same box back every time, so a mistake stays visible instead of drifting off the page unnoticed.
What is inside
- Grid
- 109pp
- Fixed character cells at 9.17 mm pitch, eighteen rows to the page.
- Reference and furniture
- 11pp
- Conversion tables, emergency numbers, and the pen test leaf that closes the block.
The film
Page by page
A vertical film from our own bench — this page contacts nobody's server to play it, and downloads nothing until you press play.
Real pages
Made at the Hibrkraft bindery, Bogor · about the maker
Books that sit alongside it
- Tasting NotebookAlso in Plain Lab
- Tian Zi Ge NotebookAlso in Plain Lab
- Recipe NotebookAlso in Plain Lab
- Arabic and Jawi Handwriting NotebookAlso in Plain Lab
Questions
What is genko yoshi?
Japanese manuscript paper ruled into fixed cells, one character to a box, instead of running lines.
How many rows are on a page?
Eighteen, at a 9.17 mm cell pitch, down the page.
Is it only for Japanese characters?
No. Any script practised stroke by stroke fits the same cell; the grid fixes proportion, not language.
How big is it?
A5, 148 x 210 mm, 120 pages, 6.86 mm across the spine.
Is it dated?
No. Start it on any page.
We are all our lifetime reading the copious sense of this first of forms.
