Sekishu Washi

Three fibres, three characters

Kozo paper has long fibres and is the strongest. Mitsumata paper is delicate and springy with a soft sheen. Gampi paper is the finest and glossiest, and resists insects. Sekishu's kozo paper was once used by merchants for account books, and was so strong that in a fire ledgers could be thrown down a well and saved. It is made in Gotsu and Hamada in Shimane.

From inner bark

• The inner bark of kozo, mitsumata or gampi is boiled with soda ash.
• The fibre is mixed with water and thickened with mucilage from tororo-aoi root.
• Sheets are formed by nagashi-zuki with screens of bamboo or reed.
• They are dried in the sun or on heated iron plates.

A poet's gift

The name Sekishu appears in the Heian-period Engishiki. A late-Edo papermaking handbook says that in the Nara period the poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, serving as governor of Iwami, taught the people to make paper. Sekishu Washi has been made for about 1,300 years, first as a side job and now as a full trade, with the same methods.