Akahon

In its Edo period literary sense, akahon refers to an early softcover literary medium that circulated in Japan from about 1661 to 1748, printed with woodblock illustrations. Belonging to the color coded kusazoshi family of books, akahon were distinguished by their red covers and by their coverage of less mature subject matter such as children's tales, fairy tales and folk legends, often serving as a young Japanese reader's first encounter with literature.