The secrets of Honminoshi, the legendary Japanese paper protected by UNESCO. This is why the Louvre and the British Museum cannot do without it
Few inventions have revolutionized the history of man like that of paper. An invention that created the first support sufficiently economical, light and easily transportable to allow mass production.
Before its arrival in Europe during the thirteenth century, however, this fundamental tool for the transmission of knowledge and bureaucratic management had already been invented and perfected in China, then moving on to neighboring Japan.
It is here that paper production transcends the simple mechanical operation of manufacturing, to become almost a work of art. There Honminoshi cardspecial variety of Mino papernor is it a shining example.
Mino’s card
Before delving into the peculiarities of Honminoshi, however, it is necessary to talk about the “extended” family to which this type of paper belongs, namely Mino washi (“Mino paper, in Japanese).
Produced in the area of today’s Mino city in Gifu Prefecture, it boasts a documented history of over 1,300 yearsthe oldest testimony is in fact a family register dating back to 702 ADpreserved in the Nara Shōsōin, considered the oldest example of Japanese paper in existence.
What distinguishes Mino washi is not only its antiquity, but a set of physical qualities that over the centuries have made it a material of choice for uses ranging from daily writing to the conservation of cultural heritage.
A card light but extraordinarily resistantwith a weave of fine and uniform fibers which gives it a smooth and refined texture. Its strength comes from the technique of forming the sheet, which while in other papermaking traditions sees the sieve being moved only vertically, in Mino’s processing they combine vertical and horizontal oscillationswhich intertwine the cellulose fibers in a more complex and compact way.
Another crucial feature is its chemical stability. Mino washi does not yellow over time and is not acidic, which means it does not damage the materials it comes into contact with. This seemingly technical property is what has made it irreplaceable in the restoration and conservation of works of art and ancient documents.
Within this family, however, there is a qualitative hierarchy that culminates in a variety with exceptionally rigorous production discipline: the Honminoshithe absolute pinnacle of this tradition.
Honminoshi, a UNESCO heritage site
Honminoshi is the purest and most codified form of Mino washi. Its name itself, “true Mino paper”, indicates that it is the most faithful and controlled expression of a thousand-year-old tradition.
A card light, translucent, soft to the touch but with notable mechanical resistancewith a smooth surface free of imperfections.
What makes the Honminoshi unique is its production regulationsextraordinarily severe. To bear the name, the paper must meet a series of criteria established by the Honminoshi Paper Preservation Association.
The first concerns the raw material, which it must use exclusively the internal fiber of the Kozo mulberry of the Daigo nasu variety, grown in Ibaraki prefecture. No other fibers are allowed.
The production process is equally constrained. The inner bark of the Kozo is boiled with vegetable ash or soda ash. The fibers are beaten manually, then immersed in water and mixed with the mucilage extracted from the root of the tororo aoi (hibiscus).
Sheet formation occurs on bamboo sievesusing the nagashizuki oscillation technique, which is responsible for the paper’s superior durability.
Finally, drying. While Mino tesuki-washi can be dried by machine, the Honminoshi is always dried in the sun on horse chestnut wood boards.
International recognition came in 2014when the Honminoshi production technique was inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, together with two other Japanese papers, the Sekishubanshi and the Hosokawashi.
The story
On the other hand, the history of using this card already speaks for itself. The quality of the product was such that its name appears in letters written by nobles and religious people in Kyoto in the 8th century AD.
The Edo period (1603-1867) marked the peak, because the Tokugawa shogunate he used it for fiat currency and for artifacts intended for officials and nobles, such as shoji and Gifu lanterns.
With the Meiji era (1868-1912) Mino washi became known abroad in Universal Exhibitions in Vienna and Paris. In the twentieth century, competition from machine-made paper put artisanal production into crisis, but in 1960 revitalization efforts began and in 1969 Honminoshi was declared an Intangible Cultural Asset.
Today it is a niche production, with few shops left using the traditional method, but it is used for the conservation of works and books in institutions such as the Smithsonian, British Museum and Louvre.
In a certain sense, therefore, the history of Honminoshi is the history of an ancient technology that has never stopped being contemporary.
