A Treasured Creation: Paper from the Wild

Three generations of the Tomi family have been producing a unique kind of handmade washi paper that is blackish-brown instead of the customary white. This is achieved by something that otherwise had just gone to waste. Tomi Kazuyuki states, "My grandpa felt bad watching cedar bark being thrown out at timber mills so he devised a new method to utilize it." The family tradition incorporating all of the wilderness into their papercraft lives on in the Noto Peninsula. We take a look at this source of creation.