This article is written by Japan House London, to read in full please click here.

Washi – literally ‘Japanese paper’ – is made from three different plants: kōzo (mulberry), mitsumata and ganpi, the long fibres of which create incredibly durable papers. With a 1500-year old history, the largest washi-making area in Japan is a cluster of five villages in Echizen in Fukui Prefecture. The high quality paper was used for many things including official documents and even the first Japanese banknotes.

How is washi made?

There are two methods of making paper, tame-zuki and nagashi-zuki. The tame-zuki paper making method was passed to Japan from ancient China. It involves placing the pulp mixture made from plant fibres and water onto a wire-netted frame screen that is kept horizontal and shaken back and forth, left to right, to mingle the fibres well. The fibres used are short and the resulting paper is less dense.
Washi is most commonly made using the nagashi-zuki method developed in Japan about 1,000 years ago. Using this method a viscous substance made from plants is added to the pulp mixture, and a bamboo-netted frame screen is rocked back and forth and from side to side so that the mixture flows over the screen. This allows the paper to be made with longer fibres, which become tightly interwoven, resulting in a stronger product.

This strong, thin paper is used not only for books, drawings, and paintings, but also as a material for architecture and everyday items including sliding paper screens and partitions (shoji and fusuma), umbrellas, andon lamps, and garments. When machine-made paper from the West began to be imported into Japan during the Meiji Period (1868–1912), people referred to Japanese paper as washi in order to distinguish it from Western paper. Washi (和紙) literally means ‘Japanese paper’. 和 (wa/Japan) + 紙 (shi/paper) = washi, handmade Japanese paper.

Awagami Factory

In addition to continuing the tradition of making washi, Awagami Factory develops new techniques and conducts research into materials. Listening carefully to the needs of washi users, the factory produces washi oriented towards modern-day uses and living spaces. The continued evolution of washi is demonstrated by the present-day demand for washi that is untrimmed, leaving edges that can be used, and innovations such as washi that is compatible with offset printing and inkjet printing.

Awagami Factory kindly sponsored the paper used in our site-specific installation by Hiroko Imada. On display in the Sculpture Gallery until 6 October.