Japanese popular paper art material—Chu paper

The Chu tree was also called the Yi tree in ancient times. It belongs to the Moraceae family and is a deciduous tree. It is also called paper towel in China. Japan’s climate and land are suitable for the cultivation of Chu trees. Chu paper accounts for more than half of Japan’s handmade Japanese paper. . Chu paper fiber is longer, second only to hemp fiber, about 10 mm long and 0.27 mm thick. Strong and durable are the biggest characteristics of this kind of paper. Currently, Japan has the largest production of Chu paper. Many paper arts and crafts are made using Chu paper.

The most representative production areas are Mino City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan (there are 27 handmade workshops for Mino paper), Fukui Prefecture (there are 42 handmade workshops for Echizen paper), Kochi Prefecture (there are 42 handmade workshops for Tosa paper). There are 27 workshops). Kochi Prefecture is the largest producer of Chu trees in Japan and supplies a large amount of Tosa Chu bark raw materials to the country every year. In addition, the more distinctive Chu paper include Ishishu Half Paper (there are 6 Misumi Handicraft Workshops in Shimane Prefecture), Kaga Hosho (Saito Hiroshi, Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture), Sugihara Paper (Hyogo) Prefecture Kamita, Inoue Masayasu) and Tosa Kiyoshi paper (Kochi Prefecture Gokawa Village, Miyamoto Yusei).