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.
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.
Paper has made it to Europe almost in the end of the Middle Ages, when it had already been known in China for more than a millennium. Traditional washi paper is made from the bark of gampi tree in Japan since the 8th century and is used for almost anything from fashion to furniture, and books, of course.
