Hello and Happy New Year to everyone!
I hope 2025 is amazing!
As usual, I’ve wandered in to the New Year with no particular set goals… well – there are a million racing about in my head, but lets ease into things hey?
So… back to Japan!
We are still in Shikoku, staying in Kochi City. Our second day we planned to go down the train line a bit to a washi paper museum. I adore washi paper – well I have a bit of a soft spot for stationary in general, so I really wanted to see this place. Plus we did some actual paper making too!
It was a super soggy day outside so this excursion was well timed.
Apparently this kind of washi paper (Tosa Washi) has been made for over 1000 years! They found a record of it being used to pay tax with! Boggles my mind.
So… no wonder they are really good at it!
When we got there we were directed to go straight past all the museum stuff and to the area to make the paper.
It was well set up with the equipment and pulp all ready for us to dip in the deckle/frame and make some paper!
Scoop up a good bit of pulp and shimmy it around
Remove the frame to see the 8 soggy postcards.
Turn it over on to the felt
And… squish!
Once we all had our go, we wandered off to the museum while our papers were being dried.
The cutest little lady was making some really big sheets of paper.
It was so nice to watch her work.
I got a couple of videos of her doing her thing!
I think we might have been using the pulp from Kozo branches (Mulberry family) but Mitsumata, a shrub from the daphne family and Gampi, also from the daphne family are also used.
There is a lot of processing to go from the branches down to the finished paper.
Raw material
These branches are steamed for about 2 hours.
Once steamed enough, cold water is poured on them which causes the surface to rapidly cool, the bark to shrink, which then removes from the wood easily.
There were 7 stages shown… I am just fast forwarding for you….
From 100% of the raw material as branches, down to 4% of the finished beautiful paper.
The museum had a lot of interesting information about all the other types of equipment that needed to be made to make the paper
looms to make the screens.
Koburi Basket – to hold the fibre.
Lined with a hemp mesh and treated with persimmon tannin.
Bundles of raw materials
And miniature scenes
Mostly made of washi paper!
While waiting, we had a go at painting a stamp and transferring it to some washi paper.
I thought I was making a dragon…
Not what I expected but I do like it very much! A cool Rooster is still awesome. Doesn’t breathe fire but I can live with that.
There were some interesting old stamps and washi paper items on display too
Then came the exciting bit!
Getting our postcards back and having some fun with the stamps!
It was all a lot of fun – inexpensive (under $10 for museum entry and the paper making experience) And there was an excellent shop – from souvenirs to art supplies!
We really enjoyed doing hands on projects when we could – so if you like this kind of thing, I totally recommend!
xx
(I left two of mine blank)
Nice work…looks like fun and just so interesting.