is the
Japanese term for a book that's complete in itself and is not part of a series. It may be used for a novel, an economics textbook, a book of beauty tips, a book presenting a coherent set of photographs, an exhibition catalogue that samples earlier books, and so forth. It is a more specific term than plain hon, which encompasses such books but also one or more issues of a periodical, one or more volumes (or the whole set) of an encyclopedia, etc.
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