iv1 For the biographies of Takejiro Hasegawa and his achievements, see Sharf 1994 and Ishizawa 2004.Portrait of Takejiro Hasegawa (Sharf 1999: 6)books were regarded as one of the distinctly exotic Japanese goods by Westerners; they were sought after as souvenirs or as pieces of art. Today, over a century later, reproducing the exact quality of the crepe paper has be-come extremely difficult. As Ishizawa (2004: 8), a leading researcher of crepe-paper books notes, even if the technology and techniques for crepe-paper production may be replicat-ed, the paper’s raw materials, such as kozo (paper mulberry) and mitsumata (oriental paperbush), are no longer cultivated in the same conditions as they were during the Meiji period.It is worth noting that Hasegawa was not the only producer of crepe-paper products in Meiji Japan. But Hasegawa’s exceptional foresight made his venture particu-larly successful; specifically, he identified and responded to the demand in foreign markets generated by increasing Western interest in the disappearing traditional culture of rapidly modernizing Japan. The flagship line of his publication, Japanese Fairy Tale Series, translated numerous Japanese folktales into English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Portu-guese. Hasegawa also worked with distinguished Japanese artists such as Eitaku Kobayashi (小林永濯, 1843-1890), Kason Suzuki (鈴木華邨, 1860-1919), Yoshimune Arai (新井芳宗, 1863-1941), and Shoso Mishima (三島蕉窓, 1852-1914). Their illustrations, carefully curated by Hasegawa himself and reproduced on paper by traditional woodblock printing workers, added immense charm to his publications. Overseeing every step of book produc-tion, from editing to marketing to distribution, Hasegawa steadily expanded his publishing business following the establishment of his company in 1884. His reputation even attracted attention from the Meiji government, which commissioned him to produce a crepe-paper book titled Japan Old and New. This book was sold alongside his other publications in the Japanese Bazaar at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago.1
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