Retro Riso Notebooks Collection / Kinokosya

• Printing Method: Risograph (semi-water-based ink)
• Binding: Saddle-stitch
• Pages: 40 pages (most designs); 24 pages (Adult Radio Calisthenics Card)
• Sizes: Varies by design: 138×138mm / 150×105mm / 138×85mm / 140×85mm / 190×138mm
• Packaging: Individual packaging with product tag
• Made in Japan: Yes

Kinokosya built this collection around the idea that a notebook's theme should shape how you use it. Each title borrows from a specific slice of everyday Japanese life: the neighborhood sento (public bathhouse), the fictional shotengai (shopping street) loyalty card, the kissa (old-school café), the local cinema. The formats follow function too, with some sized like a passbook, others like a collector's field log.

All seven titles are printed with a risograph, a machine that forces each color through a separate stencil pass. The ink is semi-water-based, which means it sits on the paper with a slight grain rather than a perfectly flat coat. Colors can bleed at the edges, and when two passes don't line up exactly, the misregistration creates a soft halo effect. Kinokosya treats these as features rather than flaws, leaning into the analog character that offset or digital printing can't replicate.

The result is a set of notebooks that feel closer to a zine or a printed ephemera piece than a standard stationery item.