Vine used in harvesting
We have been harvesting Kozo and Mitsumata: the fiber plants of Japanese paper.
The vine is necessary for the harvesting. They are used to bundle the harvested trees. They are collected in the mountain beforehand.
It can be easily tightened and unraveled and can be used many times. When use a strings instead sometimes, but with ease of use there is no substitute for vine. The plants are steamed in bundles of vines, and the inside trees are tied with the vine again to keep, and they are going to be a firewood as a bunch with the vine.
You can see how to tie the trees with vine in the video.
Unfortunately this year the plants are not grown good, maybe because of the extreme summer heat of this year. The amount of the harvest ting is smaller but we are looking forward to see what kind of the paper they will become.