Publication launch
in November 2023
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So far our newsletters about this important book have concentrated largely on
the production process. It's high time for something about its author and the
book itself, so I shall pass over here to Eleanor and leave news of the progress
of printing to the end.
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After the
flurry of writing Washi Memories last year I have now had time to reflect
on this unique book whilst Martyn has been printing the text. From small
beginnings chatting with my translator, Migiwa Matsutani, on her visit to the UK
in 2017, to a short visit to Japan in the Spring of 2019, this book has slowly
taken shape and will shortly be on its way to be hand-bound at Ludlow
Bookbinders. It seems entirely fitting that a book about the laborious process
of making kozo paper by hand has been meticulously type-set and printed by hand
and the volume, now in its final stages, will be a unique and lasting record of
processes that are struggling to survive in modern times.
Papermaker
Koichi Anzai, seen below preparing his papers for sending to the Press for the
book, has been a generous collaborator from the start. His archive of
black-and-white photographs from the 1950s, around which the book is based, show
his father, mother, and grandparents, and other papermakers at work. They
capture in detail an endangered craft, once so central to the way of life in his
village Kamikawasaki, a unique practice I was privileged to watch in the 1980s.
A sense of
the toil of making and the unique papermaking practices of this region are
described in the words and dialect of papermakers past and present. The beauty
of the natural resources in this corner of Fukushima in north-east Japan and the
resilience of the papermaking farming community is evident in the feel of the
handmade paper and in the rich photographic records. The fruit
of many hands and minds, Washi Memories now takes on a life of its own.
A final
word from the printer and a couple of shots to show how the printing has been going. The 5,000 sheets
that will go into the edition of 150 copies have been folded and I shall shortly
be gathering them to make up the sets to go for binding. They will go with sets
of photographs, packs of the Japanese papers, spine labels, and the printed
suminagashi papers for the cover paper
The eleven
handmade papers included in the book are some of the last remaining sheets from
this once thriving papermaking area. The individual samples that will go into
each copy are also now ready.
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