Orihon (Japanese: 折本, Hepburn: Orihon, ) is a book style originating from the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-908) in China and was later developed in the Heian period (A.D. 794-1185) in Japan. Construction Orihon consist of a long strip of paper with writing on one side that is then compacted by folding in zig-zag fashion. The orihon format is considered a step between a scroll and a codex. The style of folding is similar to that of the air bellows of a concertina or accordion, such that every written page faces another written page when the book is closed. It may therefore be opened to any page. It may have a cover attached to the front and back end sections of the book. Diehl describes orihon as having stabbed holes in the back cover to allow the book to be "laced." Often torinokogami paper was used in the making of orihon. Torinokogami is a kind of glossy Japanese paper that is derived from mulberry fibers. History The development of orihon began in China but later took on an association with Japanese books, as shown by its current name. "The development of alternatives to the roll in China is difficult to date, but it appears that at some time during the Tang period long rolls consisting of sheets of paper pasted together began to be folded alternately one way and the other to produce an effect like a concertina. It has been supposed that this form was suggested by the palm-leaf books which transmitted Buddhist texts from India to China. However that may be, it is in any case a fact that the concertina form was primarily used in China, and subsequently in Japan, for Buddhist texts. Books of this format are called orihon 折本 in Japan, and the format survived until the nineteenth century and beyond for printed Buddhist sūtras and occasionally for other books, such as reference lists, calendars, and folding maps." Laura C. Liberman notes in an article that the accordion book style used in Tibet traces back to orihon origins. Etymology The combination of characters are borrowed from Chinese, which originally translates the phrase to "a loss" or "a loss of money." However, when looking at the individual characters, a different meaning is found. The Traditional Chinese characters are defined as 折 meaning "to break (e.g. stick or bone); a loss" and 本 meaning "roots or stems of