Japanese tissue
thin, strong paper made from vegetable fibers
Japanese tissue, colloquially known by the misnomer rice paper, is a thin, strong paper made from vegetable fibers. Japanese tissue may be made from one of three plants, the kōzo plant (Broussonetia papyrifera, paper mulberry tree), the mitsumata (Edgeworthia chrysantha) shrub and the gampi tree (Diplomorpha sikokiana). The long, strong fibers of the kōzo plant produce very strong, dimensionally stable papers, and are the most commonly used fibers in the making of Japanese paper (washi). Tissue made from kōzo, or kōzogami (楮紙), comes in varying thicknesses and colors, and is an ideal paper to use in the mending of books. The majority of mending tissues are made from kōzo fibers, though mitsumata and gampi papers also are used. Japanese tissue is also an ideal material for kites and the covering of airplane models.
Forms
The kōzo plant is used in the manufacture of the following papers:
The gampi plant is used in the manufacture of the following papers:
The mitsumata plant is used in the manufacture of the following papers:
Manufacture
Japanese tissue paper is a handmade paper. The inner bark of the kōzo plant is harvested in the fall and spring, with material from the fall harvest being considered better quality. Bundles of kōzo sticks are steamed in a cauldron, then stripped of their bark and hung in the sun to dry. At this stage in the process, it is known as kuro-kawa, or black bark.
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This entry incorporates text from “Japanese tissue” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.