It is now the time of year when the main washi material known as nasu kozo is delivered. Mino-gami primarily uses nasu kozo as the main ingredient. Washi made with nasu kozo possesses a delicate, fine but rich quality. Incidentally, almost all papers which are considered high quality contain some nasu kozo. In the past, I have heard that Mino used high quality kozo which they cultivated themselves, but now the ingredients we have used for the past decade have all changed to nasu kozo.
Nasu kozo is primarily made in Ibaragi Prefecture (it is north of Tokyo). At present, all of the work such as cultivating the kozo, making materials for papermaking and preparing the kozo white bark is done here. There are farmers who are also involved in the distribution process as well, however these farmhands who aid the growers are elderly and the stress of it has often been a complaint. Cultivating nasu kozo is an extremely difficult undertaking, taking a year to complete. Because kozo can only be cultivated at one time of the year, it is impossible to produce high quality kozo without careful hand-care; so one can imagine the time it takes for this job. Furthermore, kozo fields are spread out on steep slopes, so it has become quite a task for the elderly kozo-harvesters in recent years.
Our mill receives nasu kozo usually through a middle-man who procures the farmworker’s labor after one year. This means that we must tell them the quantity we desire for our annual papermaking needs and pay in full once a year. This is one of the many difficulties papermakers face. This is also another reason many papermakers chose not to use high quality nasu-kozo.
It has been almost 17 years since I came to Mino and started making washi. In that time, the circumstances sur
For handmade papermaking, in general, there are many problems which arise in producing high quality washi. The first issue is finding young papermaker successors to continue their art, the second is finding toolmakers and succesors to the toolmakers who understand and can do the techniques required, and the third is material supply. Many papermakers discuss these three issues quite often. All of this—especially seeing the older generation trying to make their best quality of washi and materials under severe conditions—makes me feel even more responsible to create the best washi I can when I receive nasu kozo.
