“The Tale of Genji” is of interest due to many reasons. While the original manuscript no longer exists, it was supposedly made in Orihon style — a Japanese version of concertina binding. And it was written by a noblewoman a thousand years ago.
Washi is often dubbed “the world’s thinnest paper,”. Chinzei’s variety, tengu-joshi washi, is 0.02 millimeters thick and weighs 1.6 grams per square meter. As opposed to standard paper, which is thicker and weighs 70 grams per square meter.
Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art born in the 17th century. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings. The tradition almost faded away in the 19th century. However, these days it is revived and the characters for the prints come from video games.
Super thin paper made by Hidaka Washi Ltd. is used by museums and other institutions all over the world for conservation and restoration projects. But the technology of production dates back a thousand years.
Following last weeks popular marbling post (see here), I received a number of emails from visitors about the different types of paper available and their suitability for marbling, calligraphy and use in bookbinding and restoration projects. So, today I decided to put together a post on advanced paper-making techniques as there seems only to be a limited number of resources currently on the internet, much of which is pretty hard to find. I hope it will help a few of you out there.
Note that I am no expert in papermaking but have attended numerous paper-making workshops and have visited a handful of Washi paper making factories in Japan over the years. If you have any questions on the subject, please feel free to ask in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to help where I can.
