What is Tosa Washi?

Tosa Washi is famous traditional Japanese paper made in Kochi.

The origin of Tosa Washi is very old ( about a thousand years ago). In the early Edo period (Edo period=1603-1867), the production of Tosa_Washi was encouraged by Tosa_Han ( Kochi_prefecture was called Tosa_Han till the Meiji Restoration.). Tosa_washi is handmade and large-scale production is difficult. So from Meiji_Restoration (1868) onwards, Tosa_washi has been replaced by manufacturing mechanically.

Recently traditional Japanese Paper such as Tosa_Washi is producted in small scale as a traditional craft. Tosa_Washi is used for calligraphy, handicraft, fusuma (a thick papered sliding door for partitioning rooms in a Japanese house), shoji (ditto), a paper for painting, wrapping paper and various interiors.

Production process of Tosa Washi

1. Material

The material is the bark of woods. Kinds of woods are Kozo (paper mulberry), Mitsmata (Edgeworthia chrysantha) and Ganpi (Diplomorpha sikokiana).


Raw material	Barks	Steamer

2. Boil

The above materials are boiled for 2-4hrs with Na2CO3, NaOH and Ca(OH)2, because of getting only pulp fibers from materials.


Boil	Big iron pot

3.Wash and Bleaching

After boiling, these treated materials are washed and dipped in the stream of water, for a days. And then these are bleached by dry under the sun or by the bleaching agent. With this process, these intermediate materials whiten.


Wash	Tools

4.Removing the dust from the intermediates

This process is handwork and so it takes long time.

5.Beat & Disentangle

1)Beat under the dry condition

Long time ago, this process was also handwork using the club made from hard wood, but nowadays the machine is used for beat.


Beating	Beating tools

2)Disentangle in the water

Beaten materials are disentangled to more fine fibers by this process. Nowadays the machine named "beater" is used for the disentangle.

6.Making paper

The disentangled material is put into the shallow container filled with water and the viscous liquid made from a plant. After stirring well, the paper is making by using the bamboo screen.