{Inter} Cultural Japan

The first modern paper manufacture in Japan started in Oji (then a village at the perimeter of Tokyo) in 1873 by a company later named after the place, Oji Paper. The factory was established by entrepreneur Shibusawa Eiichi and still is (after several mergers and split-ups) one of Japan’s largest paper manufacturers. The Paper Museum was founded in 1950 at the foot of Asukayama Park and moved to beautiful new premises inside the park in 1997. It preserves about 38,000 historic items.

[Paper Museum, Tokyo. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

There are three galleries. On the 2^nd floor, ‘Modern Paper Industry’, traces the manufacturing process from pulp to paper, and also looks at the various uses of the final product. The third floor gallery is about a connected theme, the production of paper in Japan since 1868, where we of course meet the company behind the museum.

The most interesting part of the museum is on the 4^th floor, introducing the ‘History of paper in the world.’ This exhibit starts with the invention of paper in China around 100 CE, and although there is a section about papermaking in Europe, mainly tells the history of washi paper in Japan in great detail, from ancient times to modern machine-made washi.

Washi is made from bark of the paper mulberry (kozo) and is first documented in historical sources for the early 7^th c. The first artifact left us is from the 8^th c. and is kept in the Shosoin, the Imperial repository in Nara. Prosaically, these are census registers from 702. From the Heian period on, washi-making greatly flourished and various luxuriously decorated types were produced, although there also was already a sort of recycled paper in those olden times, called shuskushi (a bit gray as not all the ink could be removed).

There is also a special exhibition gallery on this floor.

Phone: 03-3916-2320

Hours: 10:00-17:00. CL Mon, day after NH, NY.

Access: 5 min walk from Oji St.

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