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Show ‘The first paper of Japan, unlike that introduced by Doncho from Korea was not made from the paper mulberry, but from barks that were inferio to this excellent material. In an endeavour to emulate the Korean an Chinese paper, Prince Shotoku ordered that the paper mulberry tree b cultivated in the principalities of Echizen, Ise, Satsuma, Idzumo, Tosa, an Osumi, and that the technique of forming shects of paper be taught o th people. This command resulted in widespread progress in the growing o mulberry trees and in the actual making of paper. The principality of Tosa inKochi, in the southernmost part of the island of Shikoku, early becam a great papermaking district and to this day remains one of the principa papermaking centres of Japan - in fact, about one-sixth of the total production of the entire countryis manufactured in hizen, in Fukui is now a large papermaking district, and has been ever since the sevent century when Prince Shotoku sponsored the craft in that province The most important papermaking substances used in Japan, China and Korea are derived from the barks of the paper mulberry tree, th mitsumata and gampi shrubs, and from bamboo and straw, all indigenou to the Orient. Without question when the finest paper of the Orient i considered, the mulberry and the mitsumata are the most important fibres Itis my desire to give a detailed account of these two materials, for they ar not only the most valuable papermaking substances but they have receive less attention from Occidental writers than have bamboo and straw The paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera, Vent. of the order Moraceac woodeut 1, (named in honour ofthe French naturalist, Pierre Marie August Broussonnet, 1761-1807), attains a height of nearly twenty-five feet, an s d th d. (I J mulberry is known under a number of names including k020, kowzo, kizu Kauzo, kachi-no-ki,and kazi-no-Fi.) The leaves are deciduous and vary in shape those of young trees being divided into three or five lobes, while those o older trees are usually an unbroken oval. Of the Japanese mulberry there ar Digitalimag © 2004 arriott Library, Universiy of Utah. All ights reserved |
