1:History of Washi (Japanese paper)


1). Introduction of paper: Paper was fist invented in China. It is told that Chinese Sairin was the first person to use bark for paper. Before Sairin used bark for paper making, poeple discovered at one of Chinese ruin that Chinese poeple were making papers since around BC 180. Because of the convenience of writing on paper and its portability, by the time a Korean man named Donchyou came to Japan, paper making had spread all over Japan. At the same time, the manufacturing process of ink and brush was introduced.
In the meantime, Chinese paper-making method was introduced to the West through the Silk Road and Western people developed it to current paper which is different from Washi.

2). At that time, Buddhism had spread in Japan and Japan was being unified as a nation. Demand for paper was increasing to transcribe the sutra or transmit national orders. Consequently, the Japanese government ordered to build paper mills in various locations.
In those days paper was made of cotton or hemp, but, later in time, the Kozo and Ganpi trees that grow naturally in Japan were used. When adhesive material (Tororoaoi) that distributes fiber of paper uniformly was found, the Japanese people invented a rare way of paper milling called Nagashi-zuki and Washi was reimported to China.

3). So-called washi is generally made of Kozo or Ganpi. However, Ganpi cannot be cultivated while Kozo trees can, so people had to use wild Ganpi trees. Therefore, Ganpi-washi was rare paper.
Paper in those days was mainly made of Kozo. Kozo paper was suitable for writing Chinese characters and was used by public servants and men. Ganpi washi is very thin, slick and permeable. In the Heian period, Hiragana, Japanese cursive syllabarly, was invented and used mostly by women. Women used Ganpi washi to write Hiragana and world-famous literary works by women writers like Tale of Genji had developed.

4). Ganpi-washi is a choice paper because Ganpi-trees are unplantable and hard to obtain. In Muromachi period (1336-1467), plantable paperbush Ganpi like trees were imported from China. Kozo-washi and Paperbush-washi are widely used and Ganpi-washi is limited in use. Ganpi-washi, a very precious paper, is called king of paper.



2. History of paper in Okinawa:
Ryukyu Dynasty imported paper from China to use for official documents and mainly dynasty and samurai used the paper. But after the Ryukyu Dynasty became Satsuma Domain's territory, the Satsuma Domain forced Ryukyu to use Kozo-washi for all documents. So Ryukyu Dynasty had to implant Kozo from the mainland and sent for papermakers to learn how to make washi. As the demand for washi increased, they had to find trees suitable for washi other than Kozo and they invented Bashoo-washi. Bashoo-washi is made from Basake string which was thrown away without being used as cloth when making Basyouhu from wild Bashoo (Musa basjoo Sieb) Japanese banana plant. Since then, the Ryukyu people tend to use Bashoo-washi for non-official occasions.
However, during Taisho era, Bashoo-washi which takes lot of time and effort to make, became unpayable. This was followed by a decline and it finally got replaced by mass-produced western style paper. Because of that, there was no one who knew how to make Bashoo-washi.



In December 1977, a disciple of late Eishiro Abe ,who was classified as important human cultural treasure, Kimihiko Katsu, moved near Shuri Castle and revived Bashooshi. What triggered him was his master Abe's regret that there were many things that have been revived like ceramic arts, Benigata (colorfully-dyed pattern) and Bashoohu cloths but Basyou-washi was not one of them. Regretfully, Katsu died young ,though he was able to revive Basyou-washi, and only one disciple is making Bashoo-washi now.

Back to menu

Copyright (C) 2005-2010 All rights reserved