Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1875 — Paper In Japan. [ARTICLE]

Paper In Japan.

When a people contrive to make saucepans, fine pocket-handkerchiefs and sailors’ water-proof overcoats out of paper, they may be considered as haVing pretty thoroughly mastered a useful art; and this is demonstrated by the above articles of Japanese manufacture, with the additional little circumstance that the saucepans are generally used over a charcoal tire. According to their own account these ancient islanders wrote upon silk faced with linen, and also used very thin woodshavings for the same purpose, until nearly the close of the third Christian era. About A. D. 280, paper was first imported from the Corea, and, superseding the home-made fabrics, monopolized the market until the year A. D. 610, when the King of the Corea sent two priests to Japan to establish the manufacture. This paper was easily torn, and liable to be destroyed by worms, and, besides, did not take the ink well These manifold disadvantages attracted the atTaislii, the son of the reigning Mikado, who substituted, as material, the bark of a species of paper-mulberry which is still extensively cultivated for the purpose, By Taishi's orders the tree was planted throughout the country, the method of manufacture publicly taught, and thus the industry was commenced which has since so prosperously continued! At the present time two hundred and sixty-three sorts of paper are manufactured in Yeddo. In regard to this immense number of styles, the national love for formalities must be considered; as, for instance, in addition to the usual varieties to which we are accustomed as appropriate for deeds, public documents, letters, notes, etc., the Japanese list mentions four distinct kinds intende<Tto be® exclusively used for poetry and songs. There are also kinds enumerated as employed for umbrellas, hats, lanterns and water-proof clothing, one being described as serving for candlewick and pockethandkerchiefs, while another is intended for handkerchiefs only, and a third is used for dressing dolls. Special kinds are prepared exclusively as wrappings for the several styles of religious, civic or social gifts. The excellence in the manufacture is due, in a great degree, to the fact that Japan furnishes a numher-of—trees-and scrubs with a fibrous bark particularly adapted as a material for paper, and several plants of which the roots, seeds or sap yield a natural size for the surface of the sheet. The species of mulberry first used in the seventh century is still regarded as containing the best fiber, and it is extensively cultivated. The plants are annually cut down to the root until the fifth year, wffien, by this treatment, the wood has become dense and strong. The branches are then cut into lengths of about one yard, and steamed in a straw vessel over a boiler. As soon as the bark begins to separate from the M’ood it is stripped oil' by the hand, the wood itself being preserved for fuel. The bark is then hoisted upon poles to dry by exposure to the air, and when dry it is separated into'bundles weighing about thirty two pounds each. The dry bark is then immersed in running water for twelve hours, after which the outer husk or bark, is scraped off to serve as the material for an inferior kind of paper. The remaining or inner portion is again washed in running water, and, after pressure under the heavy stones, the fiber is boiled with ashes. After another washing it is well pounded and then molded into balls. These balls are next thrown into a wooden trough and mixed with a pulp, together with a paste made from the root of the tororo, a shrub somewhat resembling the cotton plant. A portion of this pulp is next placed in a frame consisting of an inner and an outer portion, with a false bottom of plaited bamboo. A dexterous and peculiar jerk from tbe skilled operator sets the pulp in the frame, and it is then so placed as to permit the water to drain off. The sheet of paper is lifted from the frame with a piece of bamboo and laid, with a brush, on a drying-board, the side adhering to the board forming the face of the paper. The paper “ warranted to wash” is made with another kind of paste; and in the oil-paper, for water-proof clothes, a glue is used made from young fern shoots stained with the expressed juice of unripe persimmons. Colors are applied in powder mixed with bean paste. Several of the trees and, p 1 ants used in the manufacture of paper are described as being the object of careful cultivation, especially in the manuring and preparation of the soil— Arthur's Home Magazine.