Tosa
Prefecture on Shikoku Island is often referred to as "Tosa the
Kingdom of paper". Tosa, now known as Kochi is still Japan`s main
producing center of raw materials and homemade paper. With plentiful
supplies of raw material to hand, paper making flourished in Tosa and
during the Edo period, nanairogami, a colored paper from Tosa, was
presented to the Shogunate. Tosa nanairogami was a set of seven sheets
of paper of different colors. Then Genta Yoshii invented tosa tengujo,
the thinnest paper in the world.
Tosa tengujo is made generally of kozo fibers on a silk-covered su-keta
to provide a very smooth, extremely light-weight paper. The long silky
fibers and formation give this lightweight paper an almost woven look.
This is a very evenly made sheet with neutral pH and deckle edges. This
paper weigh only 10g and are dyed with synthetic dyes.
Making of Tosa Tengujo Paper
- Cook the barks of mulberry, mitsumata or gampi in an soda ash.
- Remove the impurities and separeate the fibers.
- Immerse the cooked fibers in water and wash them.
- Keep them under running water for 24 hours and then bleach them
in sun or bleaching solution.
- Remove unwanted matter to produce a fine quality paper.
- Beat the fibers using an oak beating stick.
- Stir the beaten fibers in plenty of water. This process is called
koburi.
- Put the pulp in a vat and mix well.
- A formation agent made from tororo-aoi is added. Tororo-aoi is
the beaten root of Hibiscus manihot.
- Individual sheets are then formed using a mold and a deckle.
- Remove the excess water by pressing the resulting sheets.
Tosa tengujo is used extensively in conservation where
application needs to be as transparent as possible. Handmade Tosa Tengujo Paper is also
favourite for chine-colle printmaking and collage.
