On August 22nd, four members of the V&A Youth Collective, including myself, took over the National Art Library (NAL) during the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Discovery Day. The event aimed to raise awareness of the library’s free and open access to the public.

Alongside Anushka Nerlekar, Kristen Kelly-Green and Maya Barter, I collaborated with V&A and NAL staff to design and deliver a Japanese bookbinding workshop to appeal to an audience aged between 18-24.

As the workshop explored the technique of stab binding, I presented an 1860s Japanese book, illustrated by Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1865) from The Kentoni Collection, to call attention to the method’s history and durability.

Pictured: Volume 34 of the episodic book series Shiranui Monogatari, comprising two bound volumes with their original fukuro (wrapper). The covers form a continuous image of characters poised as if ready for a fight, on the left, a man draws his sword, while on the right, a woman grabs a flower from a vase.

Each volume begins with a censor’s seal, dating the printing to the third month of the Year of the Rooster (1861). The first four pages feature vertical, double-page illustrations printed in black and Prussian blue. One notable image in the second volume shows a cat playing with the shadow of a butterfly. The remaining illustrations are printed solely in black ink.

Shiranui Monogatari was an epic gōkan comic book series, published in over 90 volumes between 1849 and 1855. It tells the story of Princess Wakana, the last surviving member of the Ōtomo clan, which is destroyed in a clan feud. Rescued by a magical spider, she is granted supernatural powers and sets out on a quest for revenge against the Kikuchi family (those responsible for her clan’s downfall).

Events like Discovery Day show how museums and libraries can bring history alive, not just through objects, but by empowering young creatives to engage with heritage hands-on. The team and I hoped we created a space where history could meet making.

You can read more about how the workshop was devised here: V&A BLOG