This is a typical winter’s work day for a papermaker in the Echizen region in eastern Fukui Prefecture, one of Japan’s top washi-producing hubs for around 1,500 years and counting. Papermaking is deceptively difficult:
A single sheet can be as thin as 0.02 millimeters — less than the width of most human hair. Handmade paper has an ineffable warmth and expressiveness missing from its machine-made brethren, thanks to little “imperfections” like deckled edges that betray the hand of a human maker. According to Yasuhiro, every artisan at Ryozo has their own idiosyncrasies when it comes to making paper, and he can tell exactly who among his staff made which sheet by touch and sight.
