Gassan Washi

During the Edo period (1615–1868) various types of handmade Japanese paper were produced in Nishikawa-cho, resulting in the name Nishiyama washi. Gassan washi was originally an offshoot of Nishiyama washi and is made in the Iwanesawa district of Nishikawa, situated at an entrance to Mt. Gassan, where there is a large shrine called Iwanesawa Sanzan Shrine (formerly Nichigatsu Temple) and a community of guesthouses for visiting pilgrims.

In 1989 in the Ōisawa district of Nishikawa, a papermaking studio was built in the Shizen to Takumi no Denshokan (Nature and Craft Museum). Iino Hiroo declined to work at the studio feeling that the 30 minute drive from Iwanesawa to Oisawa was too much at his advanced age, so Miura Kazuyuki, who was training as a papermaker in Ogawa, Saitama Prefecture, was invited to be the instructor for the papermaking studio. After Miura moved to Nishikawa, he worked with Iino mastering the production of the Gassan washi and eventually became the one and only papermaker in Nishikawa.

 

Currently, Miura teaches Japanese papermaking in the museum's workshop, but also makes his own Gassan washi in his private studio in the interior of Ōisawa district. 

Lets take a look at the process of producing Gassan washi papermaking. The kōzo (paper mulberry) branches are harvested just before the snow sets in at the end of November. The harvested branches are then cut to about 70 cm.

The skin of the steamed kōzo can be easily peeled off by hand.  Since this needs to be done before the branches cool, local people and college students come to help out with the work. The peeled skin is dried in bundles. Then, the dried paper mulberry skin is soaked in water again and the surface skin is shaved off using a knife. Paper mulberry that still has the outer skin is called “black bark” (kurokawa) and the stripped paper mulberry inner skin is called "white bark" (shirokawa). The shirokawa is then dried. This process is still done with the help of the Iwanesawa locals. 

The cleaned paper mulberry fibers are beaten into pulp. In the old days, this used to be done by hand beating the paper mulberry fibers with a wooden stick on to a board, but now naginata beaters and electric beaters are used.

The paper is made using a sugeta, which is a bamboo screen set in a deckle, or frame mold with handles. It is possible to swish the pulp back and forth on the screen because of the viscocity of the neri. The solution is scooped in at the front and then swished back and forth so that the pulp spreads evenly over the screen. Depending on the type and thickness of the finished product, the movement will differ. Because the amount of pulp in the solution decreases with each sheet of paper made, fine adjustments are needed to maintain the same thickness in each paper.

The pressed shito is then moistened and one by one each sheet of paper is flattened onto a drying board or a dryer to complete the Gassan washi. It used to be that Gassan washi was mainly used for shōji (sliding paper doors). Now, in addition to traditional Gassan washi, paper is being produced that is dyed with plants from around the Ōisawa area such as indigo, kihada (Amur cork tree) and benibana (safflower), or that incorporates the safflower petals. 

A variety of useful daily products are made with Gassan washi : post cards, name cards, tanzaku (narrow strips of fancy paper for inscribing poems), and uchiwa (round paper fans) with paintings of kokeshi (wooden dolls), another local product.

Recently, a Gassan washi lamp artist whose grandparents were Gassan washi papermakers, is creating lights with Miura’s hand made paper. Warm light shines through the soft fibers of paper mulberry onto the snowy Shizu Onsen, where in winter walls of snow build up to more than 10 meters.