Washi production and Nature: Sunshine

蒸し剥ぎした楮を干す — Drying the fiber bark just after peeled off from the tree.

へぐった楮を干す — Kozo beeing dried after scraped off the outer black bark.

窓に向かった漉き舟 — Sheet forming place heading to the window.

Picking out the debris heading to the window.

About this blog series
“The message from traditional Japanese paper“

Sunlight is also a natural element of paper making. The first thing that comes to mind as the role of sunlight when making handmade washi is the scene where the sheet is put onto a wooden board to dry outside in the sun. The board will be exposed to sunlight for a certain amount of time depending on how strong the sun shine is. When the sheet is warm, it is ready to peel off.

Next, it is important to dry the peeled off bark quickly, firmly, in the winter sun immediately after stripping. Because it is easy to grow mold especially when there is still black outer bark present. If the weather is good, it will dry in about two days, but if the weather is bad, raining or snowing, it will take for many days, and maybe we should use a fan.

Also after scraping off the outer bark, the material will spoil easily when wet. The so-called “white bark” has to be dried quickly too. We dry them as quickly as possible so we can store them safely for many years.

Sunshine-bleaching is another way to use sunlight: the old-way to bleach paper fiber. This is one of the features of traditional washi making. When the wet cellulose are exposed to the sunlight they become more white. The bleaching time depends on the quality of the bark, the desired whiteness of the paper, and how strong the sunshine is. When you don’t want to make the paper too white, the bleaching area needs to be covered or has to indoors.

The paper is also bleached during the drying process. When the sheets are pasted on the boards they are still wet. On a fine day the sun dries the sheets fairly fast and the sheets will be bleached again. Strong sunlight in Kochi Prefecture may be one of the reasons that Kochi could become one of the main paper centers in Japan, the second largest at present day. Even in the winter time the sun is quite strong.

The brightness of the sun is also a must when picking out the impurities and actual sheet forming. The work place is set up facing the window. Of course we use electric lighting too, but sometimes the brightness is not enough, or the reflection of the water cause trouble. The best light quality is probably the light coming from the north side of the workshop.