Before the advent of printing in the late sixteenth century, the book in Japan was an elite production to which access was limited. Acquiring, even for a short time, a text of renown or importance (even the paper upon which to inscribe one) was an event worthy of recording in history, as the diaries of many nobles attest. The physical characteristics of a book Ð whether it was wound around ivory scroll handles or pasted on the walls of a hermitage Ð formed part of the authorizing legend of many works that became classics. Picture scroll formats are believed to have influenced the narrative styles of some works, while sheer difficulty of acquisition enhanced the critical reputation of others. The world of hand-copying and oral transmission (paradoxically) focused on the text as material object. Was all this lost with the proliferation of printed formats, and the later transition to mass marketing of the Western-style bound book? Was print culture already degraded before cybertext ever reared its virtual head? This paper reconsiders the functions that various physical formats of the book played in premodern literary history. It interrogates the book as an instrument of prestige and power, and as a technology capable both of spreading words and withholding them from different audiences. By mapping the continuity of certain functions in the later history of the Japanese book, the paper attempts to shed some light on contemporary publishing culture, which promotes everything from facsimile editions in fine paulownia boxes to discarded comics on train seats.