The museum is an actual working paper factory. There is only a small room about two thirds the size of a normal classroom with displays around the room to show the various stages paper making and photos of samples. The students from the elementary across the street learn to make paper here as a cultural activity and actually produce their own diplomas on paper that they make themselves. We watched a short video, in English, on how they make the paper. The museum was interesting, but by itself it wasn’t worth the trip.
After our short video, we went downstairs to the paper making classroom. This room is large and contains about eight work stations for making paper. These stations are large stainless steel tubs with mixing areas and drying racks interspersed. Chrissy wanted to make some paper or at least see some being made. The lone lady at the museum wasn’t set up to show her how to do it, so instead she made a phone call for us to someone she said might teach us. Apparently he was willing to show us how he made paper and the curator then walked us several blocks across this little town to meet him. The man met us in the middle of the town and walked us the rest of the way to his workshop and house. The lady at the museum was able to speak a little English, but it was clear pretty quickly that this man could not. We followed him anyway, not really sure what we were getting ourselves into.
After a short walk we arrived at what appeared to be his workshop and possibly his home. He took us first into the workshop which is very rustic and small, about the size of a single car garage. The tubs where he makes the paper were made of wooden planks, not stainless steel, and appeared very old. He had a tub on each side of the shop. His work area where he sits in front of the tub is dug into the dirt floor. He has bowls of pulp on the shelves, in various stages of production, for display. The tubs are filled with water, pulp, clay, and glue. Next to the tubs were large vats of raw pulp. His shop is a working paper factory. He handed us the bowls and had us feel the pulp. He had examples from each stage of the process, just like the museum. He stirred the tub and dipped his bamboo screen into the water and formed a piece of paper, about 20 by 40 inches in size. As he demonstrated his craft and guided us through his shop he continually lectured us on the process to make paper, all in Japanese. He then took us to the storage room where he kept his planks for drying the paper in the sun.
Between the shop and the storeroom he had a small garden with samples of trees that are used in the production of paper. He then took us into a two room traditional building where he displayed his final works, photographs and awards he has earned for his craft. He continued his lecture pointing out various things that might interest us. There were photos of Pope John Paul II receiving something on his 'Najio' paper. We also saw a very formal picture of him seated with a group of people taken at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. He had samples of gold leaf that had been pounded flat between pieces of his paper as well and explained it was used to cover Kinkakugi, the Golden Pavilion, in Kyoto. In several drawers he had large sheets of paper. Some drawers had paintings or wood prints on natural paper. The paper he created was also used for stencils for creating traditional Japanese prints. We had read about a man in Najio, Takenobu Tanino, known to be considered a National Living Treasure. And we were starting to realize we were standing in the room with him.
In all, he graciously spent about an hour with us in his shop and display house. As we began to leave, thinking we may have imposed a bit too much, his wife came in bringing us green tea, cookies, and chocolate. So we sat with them in the outer room of his display room and drank the tea. Jessica was surprised that Chrissy and I both enjoyed the bitter tea. Jessica only drinks tea when she is sick and then it is the more common American lemon tea and she isn’t even fond of it. So the bitter tea was tough for her to drink, but she did it.
While we drank tea he showed us two books where people have signed comments about their experiences at his shop. The few English signatures that we saw dated back to the 1970s. His wife told us very animated stories in Japanese, very little of which we understood, but that didn't stop her. She was very sweet. Then she handed us a brush for us to write our own comments in his book. All of us wrote short comments trying to describe how fortunate we felt to have had the opportunity to meet and learn from such a generous,wise and valuable, yet very modest, person.
It's strange to think that it's possible we could have gone away never knowing that the man who invited us graciously into his workshop and studio was a National Living Treasure. And even though he never told us directly who he was, modesty being the most important virtue in Japan, it seemed he knew we knew. Hopefully he also knew how honored we were by his graciousness and generosity.
For more information, please check out: http://www.jamco.or.jp/english/library/documentary/dc290000/dc290316.html
http://nippon-kichi.jp/article_list.do?p=1657&ml_lang=en
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