In spite of the fact that many Westerners have studied papermaking in Japan, it appears there are very few who make Japanese-style paper regularly in the West. One of them is Izhar Neumann who established the Tut Neyar paper mill in Israel.2 Neumann studied papermaking in Japan between 1984 and 1986 with Inoue Genji in Warabi, Mino city (Gifu prefecture) and with Kobayashi Yasuo in Kadoide (Niigata prefecture).3 Neumann now spends about 30 percent of his time each year making Japanese-style paper or harvesting his own locally grown kozo brought originally from Japan. Each year between the end of November and mid-March, Neumann, his wife Timna, and friends harvest 30 kilos of white bark, 20 of green bark, and 20 more of black bark. (Neumann invites volunteers from the readership!) Neumann cooks in sodium carbonate, uses a combination of hand and stamper beating, and estimates that he makes about 1,500 to 2,000 sun-dried 52 x 80 cm kozo sheets each year. Conservators in Israel use the majority of the paper. Neumann produces additional types of kozo paper for woodblock prints, calligraphy, and bookbinding, and he occasionally uses imported gampi to make thin paper for chine-collé printing. The Neumanns also make backlit pictures using dry leaves, flowers, and silk threads incorporated between double-couched kozo paper. At the Paper Facility of the University of Iowa Center for the Book (UICB) Japanese-Style Papermaking in the West timothy barrett 38 - hand papermaking Izhar Neumann at one of his several kozo plots on Galilee Mountain, Israel, in the summer of 2005. Photo: Shaked Neumann. Courtesy of Izhar Neumann. Marianne Kelsey forming 24 x 36 inch kozo sheets at the UICB Research and Production Paper Facility, in February 2006. Photo by and courtesy of the author. we also take a very traditional approach. We raise our own fiber from Japanese tree stock. Our annual harvest of black bark has ranged, over the last four years, from 15 to 35 kilos. Only 5 to 10 kilos are subsequently processed annually to the white bark stage for papermaking. (We are selling the excess black bark to other papermakers.) Our tororo aoi is also home grown and used fresh, or fresh frozen. We work only in the wintertime in a cold workspace, cook in a mix of sodium carbonate and lye of vegetable ash, beat with a combination of hand, stamper, and naginata, and dry our finished sheets indoors on a heated stainless steel surface.4 Our annual production is only 500 to 1,000 sheets; a very small amount compared to the output of a Japanese professional who can make 300 or more sheets in a day! We produce solely lightweight kozo paper intended for conservation applications with a weight of approximately 15 g/m2. Donna Koretsky spent three months studying papermaking in Japan in 1980. She now makes about 200 sheets of Japanesestyle paper each year following workshops she teaches on the technique at Carriage House Paper. She uses imported kozo, mitsumata, and gampi, and occasionally fresh kozo grown by Elaine Koretsky. All beating is done by hand. Formation aid is polyethylene oxide or polyacrylamide, and occasionally fresh tororo aoi. She dries her sheets on birch plywood boards. These are the only three workshops I am aware of where individuals produce traditional Japanese-style paper in the West on a regular basis. However, my research for this report has not been extensive and Hand Papermaking and I would very much like to hear from anyone whom we have missed. Furthermore, the parameters I have used preclude others with extensive backgrounds in Asian papermaking who do produce Japanese-style sheets on occasion with professionally made equipment they own. These individuals include Mina Takahashi (who studied papermaking in Japan for two years), Elaine Koretsky, Dorothy summer 2007 - 39 Field, and Marilyn Sward. In addition, there are a few Westerners residing in Japan who practice traditional Japanese papermaking. Richard Flavin, an American, grows and harvests kozo, and makes paper throughout the year in Ogose village near Tokyo. His black bark harvest this past year was 29 kilos. In past years, when Flavin had more help with kozo plot tending, the yield averaged 60 kilos. In 2006 Flavin produced about 700 sheets of kozo paper including decorated papers and an additional 5,000 sake bottle labels. Rogier Uitenboogaart from the Netherlands lives in Kochi, Japan where he has been very active in nagashizuki papermaking and allied crafts for many years. Perhaps equally significant is the work of Westerners who have adapted the nagashizuki technique to create new types of paper or explore its creative possibilities when they make artwork. The first such example I offer, is the use of inexpensive home-built moulds fitted with a "matchstick" curtain su (screen) covered with no-see-um netting to produce large-format Japanese- style sheets. I believe that Winifred Lutz accomplished this first, with a 38 x 72 inch mould she built and later utilized during a workshop hosted by Elaine Koretsky at Carriage House Handmade Paper in the early 1980s. Over the years the process has evolved so one can make a 4 x 8 foot (or larger) sheet on simple moulds made of 2 x 4 inch lumber faced only with stretched mosquito netting. By combining nagashizuki with the ancient technique of drying the sheet on the mould, a papermaker can make very large, thin sheets of paper without a press, felts, or drying boards. Furthermore, in Western-style sheet forming it is nearly impossible to produce such thin, evenly formed sheets of long fibers such as abaca, kozo, mitsumata, and gampi. Readers interested in exploring the technique should pick up a copy of Edwin Jager's whimsical but very practical comic book So You Wanna Make Big Sheets.5 Another papermaker adapting nagashizuki techniques is Hand behind Gangolf Ulbricht's 2 g/m2 gossamer tissue illustrating its Richard Flavin making some of the first paper in his new studio in Ogose featherweight thinness. Courtesy of Gangolf Ulbricht. village, Japan, in November 2005. Photo by and courtesy of Paul Denhoed. Gangolf Ulbricht from Germany who studied in Japan for a full year in 1998, mainly under Naito Tsuneo in Fujinomiya near Mt. Fuji. Ulbricht is based in Berlin and usually makes Western- style papers.6 However, last year he and his assistant used hand-beaten Japanese Nasu kozo (considered the most refined variety) and mitsumata to make 1,000 sheets of gossamer-thin tissue for conservation with a weight of only 2 g/m2. They are now preparing to make huge 2 x 3 meter sheets of bleached kozo using a floating mould technique that requires a large quantity of synthetic formation aid. The finished sheets will weigh 100 g/m2. All sheets are dried on the screen. In due course Ulbricht plans to cultivate kozo and use his professionally made Japanese moulds to make paper in the traditional fashion as well. At the UICB, our best-selling Japanese-style sheet is an adaptation of a classic Japanese decorative paper. In the early 1980s, on a suggestion from book conservator Bill Minter, we developed a 24 x 36 inch sheet with parallel watermarked lines running every few millimeters. The thin strips of tissue can be torn off dry and are used in reinforcing or "guarding" book leaves at the gutter fold prior to rebinding. The paper is called MDTGS for "Minter dry-tear guard strip." Since the mid-twentieth century, artists in the West have slowly started to explore the creative potential of the nagashizuki process in the execution of their artwork. Donald Farnsworth, one of the first to incorporate nagashizuki methods in his two-dimensional work, remarked recently, "The attraction of working with pulp, especially using Japanese techniques is the ability to work inside the paper, not just on its surface. Thin slurries of pigmented fiber not only entrap collage elements, but push them into the middle ground or background of the pictorial space depending on pulp manipulation." Exploiting the inherent visual qualities of the Japanese papermaking method, Farnsworth appreciates how "the fibers create a matrix of optically blended color, transitioning through various hues created by multiple washes of colored fibers coming out of suspension, draining through the beautiful latticework of the su."7 In the sculptural realm, Winifred Lutz made a major technical and creative leap in the late 1970s when she had a hunch that Japanese fiber mixed with formation aid and formed nagashizuki style would cling to a porous three-dimensional surface as readily as it adheres to a flat su. Her research using stretched cotton fabric moulds resulted in her ability to create very thin, translucent, self-supporting volumetric forms using this technique. This work has no historical precedent that I am aware of. Mina Takahashi has aptly called the development of the technique "nothing short of revolutionary" and it remains a promising area for future exploration. Winifred's approach to this method is detailed in her excellent 1980 article Casting to Acknowledge the Nature of Paper.8 To prepare this essay, I surveyed an additional dozen American artists working with Japanese papermaking techniques to better understand how and why they utilize Japanese fiber and nagashizuki formation in the creation of their artwork.9 Many of the artists lauded the working properties of Japanese paper, particularly its strength, flexibility, ease of processing, and lightweight nature. Andrea Peterson explained, "I first started using kozo as a backing sheet for pulp drawings which enabled me to dry them to a slick surface. They would dry flat no matter how thick and uneven I applied my cotton rag." Making large-format 40 - hand papermaking Donald Farnsworth, Counterpoint Colonnade, 1989, 42 x 81 inches, abaca, kozo, tororo aoi, pigment, watercolor, gouache, oil (paint), sumi, lithography, silver leaf, momigami, found objects, color pencil, acrylic sizing. Photo by the artist. Collection Magnolia Editions. Winifred Lutz casting indigo-dyed gampi pulp in Wedge-wave mould using nagashizuki forming technique. Photo by and courtesy of the artist. left: Andrea Peterson, detail of Pixeled Apples, 2005, 36 x 72 inches, kozo base sheet with finely beaten pigmented cotton, stenciled and woodcut. Edition of 2. Photo by and courtesy of the artist. right: Amanda Degener, Interior view of Seed, Spirit, Plant, Earth, Seed Again, 2004, 18 x 10 x 10 feet, kozo and gampi paper made by the artist, natural dyes, pigment, seeds, gold leaf. Courtesy of the artist. works with kozo allows Peterson to "roll it up, stick it in a tube, and carry it on my bicycle," a freedom not enjoyed by most painters and sculptors.10 Amanda Degener also appreciates kozo's lightweight nature because she can develop large-scale sculpture "in defiance of gravity."11 Anne McKeown likes to work with kozo because of its rapid drying time and its capacity to "retain its ability to adhere to itself" even after long periods stored as wet sheets on Pellon in the refrigerator.12 On a more visceral level, artists spoke of their attraction to the nagashizuki process itself. Eugénie Barron finds it conducive to her way of working: collaging thin laminations instead of employing "squirt bottles or templates, which I just do not enjoy using."13 Tatiana Ginsberg called nagashizuki sheet forming "almost meditative…" and said, "I enjoy the process, and the look and feel \[of the finished paper\] suit my aesthetic."14 Translucency, warm and subtle tones, softness, veiling properties, suppleness, and delicate sheen are the most-quoted visual characteristics that artists favor and rely on when they produce their work with Japanese fiber and nagashizuki techniques. For Therese Zemlin, "Asian papers almost always retain the integrity and identity of plant fiber."15 Dorothy Field similarly remarked that nagashizuki papers "speak of their plant source" and have "fibrous integrity."16 Some artists are intrigued by Japanese paper's resemblance to skin: its soft touch and supple texture; an antidote to the hard, somewhat sterile nature of commercial Western paper. Many of the artists feel a strong connection to nature when working with Japanese fiber and nagashizuki techniques, more so than with Western papermaking which often involves more mechanical processes. "The plants and colors I process are a mixture of fiber, sun, soil, and rain," Amanda Degener eloquently explained, "this natural world has a value and life of its own. I hope to create artwork with the same kind of energy that is visible in nature."17 Sometimes the choice to utilize Japanese-style papermaking is related to the artwork's conceptual underpinnings. Marilyn Sward prints photographic images on Japanese-style paper she produces, appreciating how the paper which involves much care and time in its making "lives in strong contrast to the quick mechanical click of the camera shutter."18 For Paul Wong, working with Asian papermaking helps him to "narrate a story or conceptual construct relative to \[his\] Chinese cultural identity."19 For her series Proverbial Threads, Robbin Ami Silverberg produced kozo paper, which she printed with proverbs from around the world about women's work, and spun it into thread. "The connection to \[the Japanese\] cloth-making tradition (shifu) is conceptually important to me, particularly in my artwork about women's work."20 So what is the future of Japanese-style papermaking in the West? Will it persist and survive? I am not just hopeful, but confident that Western artists and artisans will continue to practice and explore the nagashizuki technique. This is in part because Japanese-style papermaking can be accomplished without any of the heavy equipment associated with Western-style papermaking. In addition, the Japanese papermaking process is taught at an increasing number of universities and summer programs. The key is for artisans to reinvent the craft to generate new papers that answer ever-evolving needs, and for artists to continue to mine nagashizuki's yet unexploited creative possibilities. No doubt, taking this on will be a challenge but it also will be a great honor, for artisans and artists alike, to make a contribution to the preservation of this venerable craft. ___________ notes 1. For more detail on the subject please consult any of the three most useful references on the subject: Donald Farnsworth, A Guide to Japanese Papermaking (Oakland, CA: Magnolia Editions, 1989); Sukey Hughes, Washi, the World of Japanese Paper (Tokyo, New York, and San Francisco: Kodansha International, 1978); and Timothy Barrett, Japanese Papermaking: Traditions, Tools and Techniques (Warren, CT: Floating World Editions, 2005, revised edition). 2. Tutneyar is the Hebrew name for kozo. The mill website is www.tutneyar.co.il. For more on Neumann's papermaking, see Joyce Schmidt and Nellie Stavisky, "Mitnan and Hand Papermaking in Israel," Hand Papermaking vol. 2, no. 2 (Winter 1987): 15–16. 3. For more on Kobayashi Yasuo, see Izhar Neumann, "Yasuo Kobayashi—A Young Japanese Papermaker," Hand Papermaking vol. 4, no. 2 (Winter 1989): 16–19. 4. For more on the UICB naginata beater and its construction see Timothy Barrett, "Optimum Fiber Separation for Nagashizuki Papermaking" Hand Papermaking, vol. 6, no. 2 (Winter 1991): 12–14. 5. Edwin Jager, So You Wanna Make Big Sheets (1996; revised edition, Oshkosh, WI: my name iz edwin, 2005). Available from Twinrocker Handmade Paper. 6. Gangolf Ulbricht's studio is Werkstatt fur Papier, located at Marianneplatz 2, 10997, Berlin, Germany. His e-mail address is gangolf.ulbricht@p-soft.de. 7. Don Farnsworth, e-mail message to the author, January 20, 2007. 8. Lutz article appeared in International Conference of Hand Papermakers, Boston, Massachusetts, usa, October 2–5, 1980, ed. Elaine Koretsky and Bernard Toale (Brookline, MA: Carriage House Press, 1981) and was reprinted in Hand Papermaking, vol. 1 no. 1 (Spring 1986). 9. I would like to thank Mina Takahashi who, at my urging, went beyond the normal editor's call of duty and contributed to the research and writing for the section on artists' use of nagashizuki. 10. Andrea Peterson, e-mail message to the author, January 22, 2007. 11. Amanda Degener, e-mail message to the author, January 22, 2007. 12. Anne McKeown, e-mail message to the author, January 20, 2007 13. Eugénie Barron, e-mail message to the author, January 21, 2007 14. Tatiana Ginsberg, e-mail message to the author, January 25, 2007. 15. Therese Zemlin, e-mail message to the author, January 22, 2007. 16. Dorothy Field, e-mail message to the author, January 19, 2007. 17. Amanda Degener, e-mail message to the author, January 22, 2007. 18. Marilyn Sward, e-mail message to the author, January 23, 2007. 19. Paul Wong, e-mail message to the author, January 22, 2007. 20. Robbin Ami Silverberg, e-mail message to the author, January 21, 2007. summer 2007 - 41 Robbin Ami Silverberg, Let Women Spin and Not Speak (Gikuyu, Kenya), 2006, 7 x 3 x 3 inches, inkjet text on spun Dobbin Mill papers (orange kozo paper and celadon kozo/hemp paper), industrial bobbin. Photo: Gregg Stanger. Courtesy of the artist.