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Buddhism, bombs and blouses: Japan's versatile 'washi' paper

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Before IIW Japanese Washi was renown for its highest quality throughout asia. throughout Asia all the white clothes worn by temple workers, the white paper used and all the sail cloth was produced in Japan. Japan made the best sail cloth also. The halt of manufacturing of Washi was because the raw material use to produce the end product was cannibis. Dupont was a emerging company during this time with a product call plastic and nylon. They need this superior washi product out of the market. Japan had the best genetic cannibis to produce wash products so the American stop the growing off cannibis after the war, Not the production of washi. Your Article failed to mention this most important point of the production of Japanese Washi.

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Probably because cannabis competes with tobacco, and tobacco lobbyists and tobacco corporations and tobacco state politicians are very well-connected in the USA.

Stuff grows like a weed and as far as I know it doesn't need a curing process like tobacco does. How many smokers grow their own tobacco?

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Some washi might use cannabis; some washi also use rice, bamboo, or wheat but the majority use mulberry, gampi, kozo, and mistumata fibers.

And the main reason washi is disappearing is because mechanization makes western-style paper cheaper. Washi is labor intensive and even in the good old days it was expensive. In fact, western-style paper was expensive in the west, too, until the machinery came along in the 1800s.

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There's a lot of very cheap washi-style paper coming from China and competing internationally, or at least so I hear the paper makers complain every time I visit our local washi village.

I find it a little ironic because, according to local legend here, the washi-making technology originally came from China to Japan.

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If you want to visit Ogawa, the best way to get there is take the Tobu Tojo line train from Ikebuburo.

I see washi becoming more a very specialized paper, especially for things like greeting cards and the Buddhist scrolls mentioned in the article. However, if hemp production is increased worldwide with less strict cannabis laws, we could see a lot more washi produced in Japan, especially from the fast-growing hemp plant.

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