Hiromi Paper's Washi Tour 2025
- Fenna Engelke
- Mar 5
- 8 min read
[This post is still under construction. Thank you for your patience while I work on it]
This past September I had the great privilege of being a part of a 9-day long tour through Japan, visiting several papermakers and various paper-related institutions. Hiromi Paper is known to be a Japanese paper distributor located in California. As such, Hiromi Paper has for several years hosted their repeat Washi tour, geared towards conservators and paper enthusiasts. I had the great luck to join them this summer and so the following blog post will be an in-depth report on the trip and information I learned. Because there will be quite a lot of information given in this post, there are links to each section
Bokusendo
Fukunishi Washi Honpo
Ryoji and Hisako Uekubo
Sugihara Shoten
Igarashi Paper Mill
Iwano Heizaburo
Ohtaki Shrine
Kadoide Washi
Hosokawa Washi Paper Facility
Hiroko Tanino
Tosa Washi Museum
The first stop of the trip was the Tosa Washi Museum, located in the city of Ino within Koshi prefecture. We were introduced to the history of paper within this area and introduced to the historical figure of Genta Yoshii who brought traditional papermaking technics to the area.
Hamada Washi
Hamada Washi was the first papermaking studio on the tour. Hamada Washi is owned by Osamu Hamada and produces several papers for Hiromi, including handmade tengujo. While there, Hamada-san was fulfilling an order for a double-thickness paper being used for printmaking. The studio comprises of three buildings: one where Hamada-san was pulling sheets, a larger workshop area where other employed papermakers work and where they teach classes and host workshops, and a back building which houses the beaters. The tour was led through the main building, where others were making paper, and where two heated drying tables are stored. These drying tables were metal with three sides where paper could be brushed on and left to dry. They also employed drying boards and would dry sheets in the sun; however, for thicker papers, the heated tables were preferred. Behind the main building was a wood-heated boiler that could cook 30kg of bark for about 3 hours. The tour led through the back room housing the paper beaters- including a traditional beater called a tantan (named after the sound it makes). Hamada-san typically uses both a Hollander beater and a tantan to prepare the fibers for papermaking.
Hidakawashi
In addition to handmade paper, the tour also visited Hidakawashi, a paper manufacturer located in Kochi that produces machine-made tengujo paper for the conservation market. The group was led on a tour of the entire facility, starting from the storage of kozo fibers and walking past each step in the papermaking process, from boiling, cleaning, bleaching, beating the fibers, and eventually to the formation of a paper roll on the papermaking machine. What surprised many of the tour guests was that every step up until the sheet formation is done by hand and done with great care. At the beginning of the tour we were shown the kozo fibers purchased from several location as well as the boiling vats.
Kochi Prefecture Paper Technology Center
[While I was able to take photos, I was asked not able to upload any photos of the inside of the research center's labs. These images are from the center's lobby]
A technology center funded by the local government to assist local papermakers and paper manufacturers. The center employs scientists who do fiber analysis for paper producers, conservators, and historians. They also have a lab that tests paper properties for paper manufacturers who are testing new products. We began by being introduced to one of the scientist and being given an introductory presentation.
The research center's goals comprise of:
1. research and testing
2. commissioned testing services, including responding to requested technical analysis
3. technical consultation
4. human resource development and providing resources for paper producers
After an overview of the center's goals and operations we were able to tour the facility. Our first stop was to the lab where fiber analysis takes place. We were impressed by the number of reference fibers they had and the scientist presented some fibers for us to view in the microscope in the lab.
Here are some notes from our time looking at paper fibers:
Kozo fibers:
Kozo fibers that they view are typically around 10mm in length, though a weak fiber will show up as shorter. The scientist mentions that in the Heian period that the paper makers would intentionally cut the fibers shorter and so, when items from this era come in, the shorter fibers are not indicative of the fiber health. When asked why, the scientist suggested that it may be that though we now use Neri for dispersion within the vat, it could be that in the Heian period used shorter fibers to assist with dispersion.
Tosa kozo tends to be softer paper due to their long fibers while Nasu kozo tends to be harder paper due to shorter fibers.
Gampi fibers:
The strands are narrower than kozo and the fiber tends to fold over on one another
Gampi fibers are typically 3-5mm in length
Gampi and Mitsumata fibers tend to darken at the ends
Gampi fibers tend to be flat and shiny
Bamboo:
During the Edo period, Japan would import a lot of bamboo from China
Bamboo fibers tend to be 1-4mm long
Other notes:
You will see more variety of papers within Japan after 1869 due to introduction of western papers
Small flecks within a paper sample can show that the paper was used for ukiyoi prints as these paper often had some rice add to it during the papermaking process to make the paper more dense. Adding rice also prevented the paper from shrinking during the printing process. The rice would not be cook but would be ground up and added to the papermaking process.
Sizing can turn yellow over time but yellowing can be caused by a lot of things and is not alone an indicator of the presence of sizing.
[Images of the handout given to us while at the Paper Technology Center]
Nishida Washi Kobo
We were met by the papermaker Seigi Nishida, who was in the process of fulfilling an order for one of the castles in Kyoto that needed shoji screen papers. Nishida-san’s studio produces paper by the order and does not stock paper for future orders. Overall, the studio employs eight people. Nishida-san mentions that it is characteristic of the region to primarily shake the screen up and down and shake right to left. This does give the paper a stronger grain direction.
While there we learned some information about the local area:
They grew their own kozo out in the field and had previously harvest 45 tons of kozo the year before.
The farmers will harvest at the beginning of December. They would previously wait until the leaves fell off of the branches to harvest but with the warmer winters they have started to harvest regularly at the beginning of December.
There are 10 other kozo farmers that grow kozo in the region
Kubota Studio
Just down the street from Nishida Washi Kobo is Kubota Studio, where we spoke with So Kubota and his family. Generally, Kubota Studio prepares papers by special order and often makes papers for conservation use. Kubota-san and his family generally use a combination of hand-beating the fibers and using the Hollander beater to process the paper fibers. Typically it takes 2.5 hours for them to beat the fibers and typically do it in the later part of the day after everything else is done in order to prep the fibers for the next day. Kubota-san states that for their purposes the naginata paper beater is too aggressive with the fibers.
Because the papers made are thin, they can dry three layers of sheets on top of one another. Kubota-san has a building in the back of the complex, which he uses as a showroom to store finished papers and show them to buyers. The papers in the showroom are stored in beautiful cedar drawers created specifically for their showroom.
Hamada City Sekishu Washi Hall
Kubota-san accompanied us to the local Sekishu Washi Hall, a space that teaches about papermaking and provides workshops and artist residencies. In the museum was an area for paper processing and tools and work set aside from a 5-day workshop the museum was hosting. There was also a studio at the museum that could be used as an artist residency. In the instructional area of the museum were examples of kozo at different stages of the processing. While there we noticed that the kozo in the display was stripped in a way that the tube-like shape of the plant was kept in tact. We were told that this method of stripping the fibers was taught to papermakers in the area and that they felt the bark came off more efficiently if they used this method.
There was also a shop that sold papers and paper-based materials from local papermakers, including papers from Nishda Washi Kobo and Kubota Studio. While there, many of use purchases sheets of paper from the store as well as from Kubota-san himself who had joined us and brought with him papers from his showroom.
Anekawa-san, a su maker in Echizen
One of the main tools used in Japanese papermaking is the suketa「須桁」, which is the mold that the papermaker uses to form sheets of paper. It is made up of two parts: The su and the keta. One of the stops within Echizen included visiting Anekawa-san, a former papermaker herself, who now makes bamboo su for various papermakers. Anekawa-san had learned to make su while she was still a papermaker and stated that she had been weaving su for 10 years. Once she retired at 60 from papermaking, she decided to continue making and selling su to various papermakers. Anekawa-san takes very thin bamboo strips that taper at each end, allowing them to overlap without causing any bumps within the su. To hold the bamboo in place, thin threads of silk are used. These weaving areas, where the thread holds the bamboo in place, are weighted down to ensure they do not move and maintain the bamboo's position during the su creation. Every time a new layer of bamboo is added, the thread is moved to cover the new layer. Anekawa-san mentioned that if there are any issues with the su, they often have to take it completely apart to redo it.
Thank you!
A great thank you to Hiromi Paper and the guides Yuki and Yoko for arranging and leading up during the trip. The trip was a wonderful learning experience, and everything that was done and learned over the course of the nine days cannot be fully described here. Each professional visit was educational and appreciated. I have written a brief blog post about the trip for the Met’s paper conservation blog (unknown when the posting will be published), with this post being a more extensive reporting of all my notes from the trip. I extend a warm thank you to the FAIC Carolyn Horton Scholarship and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Travel Grant for providing me with the opportunity to undertake this trip.
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