Traditional craft
Awa Washi
阿波和紙
Handmade paper from Tokushima, famous for its soft, strong sheets dyed with the region's natural indigo.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 15 December 1976
- Type
- Washi paper
- Region
- Shikoku
- Official name in Japanese
- 阿波和紙
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 吉野川市、那賀郡那賀町、三好市
Indigo on paper
Awa Washi's signature is Awa indigo-dyed washi: plant-dyed paper with the natural tone of handmade sheets, a gentle feel, supple softness and surprising strength. Other products include gasenshi for calligraphy, craft paper and wrapping paper. It is made in Yoshinogawa, Naka and Miyoshi in Tokushima.
Even thickness by hand
- Fibre is taken from selected kozo, mitsumata and gampi. Awa uses black-bark kozo grown toward the Kochi border.
- Sheets are made by nagashi-zuki on screens of bamboo or reed, the most important step.
- Keeping the thickness even and the fibres uniform takes great skill.
- The sheets are laid out and dried.
The Imbe clan
A 9th-century book records that about 1,300 years ago the Imbe clan, who served the imperial court, planted hemp and kozo here and made paper and cloth. Their ancestor, Ame-no-Hiwashi-no-Mikoto, has been worshipped as the god of paper ever since, and the skill has been handed down with that faith.
Good to know
- Indigo-dyed Awa paper is a light, very Tokushima souvenir.
- Kozo is a mulberry-family shrub whose long, strong fibres make tough, supple paper.
Questions travellers ask
What is Awa Washi known for?
Paper dyed with Awa's natural indigo.
Who is the god of paper in Awa?
Ame-no-Hiwashi-no-Mikoto, ancestor of the Imbe clan.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.