To better understand the process of making Chiyogami Yuzen we pointed a few questions to the people at the Japanese Paper Place...
Could you tell us a bit more about the history and derivation of chiyogami?
"Sure! The paper that we know as chiyogami actually comes from a blending of two Japanese traditions: woodblock-printed Japanese papers ("chiyogami"), and a specific style of kimono fabric patterns ("Yuzen"). The word "Yuzen" originally referred to a style of highly elaborate designs, incorporating a lot of gold, which were printed onto cloth for kimonos. After World War II, however, with Japan embracing the West and the drastic decline in demand for kimonos, the old cloth printing studios with little to do began applying their patterns to paper. These patterns blended with the existing woodblock-printed chiyogami tradition to create a newer, wider range of paper patterns that now also included gold. Over time, the more efficient silkscreen technique imported from the West replaced woodblock production.Part of the confusion about whether these papers are called Yuzen (as they are commonly known in the USA) or chiyogami comes from this blended history. Really, today's papers are both. We call them chiyogami because it's the term that refers traditionally and specifically to paper (-gami means paper)."
I am aware that in the past, chiyogami was silk-screened by hand. Is all chiyogami still produced in this way?
"All the chiyogami that we carry is still silk-screened by hand. It's a laborious process, with each pattern requiring a separate screen that needs to be hand-registered for each colour layer. Just imagine: for the plum blossom pattern you call "Floral Pattern Sky Blue", each sheet needs to be registered and a colour layer applied – and then left to dry – six times."
"Moreover, the chiyogami we carry are not made in sweatshop conditions in the Third World somewhere. They all come from studios we know - and in several cases have visited and seen for ourselves – that are small, family-run Japanese businesses we are proud to support."



