Japanese Craftsman Restores Old Books To Look Good As New

Instead of being lost to memory, an old, tattered 1,000-page English-Japanese dictionary was given new life when its owner handed it over to Nobuo Okano, a Japanese master craftsman who has spent 30 years perfecting the art of restoring old books.

Nobuo Okano has been restoring books for 30 years

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A guy brought an old, 1,000-page English-Japanese dictionary

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He used it in his youth and now wants to restore it and give it to his daughter

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Nobuo begins by shaving the old glue from the spine

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The book had some maps of English-speaking countries. They suffered greatly, so Nobuo glued them to new sheets of paper

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The color doesn’t match perfectly, but he can prevent them from degrading further

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The most monotonous part is straightening out every page corner with tweezers…

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…and then wetting and ironing the corners straight!

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He even has a special tiny iron for the job

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The owner wrote his high school sweetheart’s initials on the book in ink

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Using a heavy-duty paper cutter, Okano removes the color from the edges

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New, minty-fresh pages!

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Last but not least, the cover, with the original title on a brand-new background

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