Tamamura demonstrating traditional methods in Udatsu Paper & Craft Museum (in Echizen-shi, Fukui Prefecture)
Visitors can create their own papers using pressed flowers they choose at Papyrus House
Echizen Washi is a type of Japanese paper with a 1,500-year history manufactured in Fukui Prefecture. Echizen Washi no Sato (Echizen Paper & Culture Museum) in Echizen-shi, Fukui Prefecture, is the place where you can have a first-hand experience of the paper-making tradition and culture. In one of its most popular facilities, Papyrus House, you can create your original Japanese paper with your own hands. Another popular attraction here is Udatsu Paper & Craft Museum where you can actually see how local artisans make Echizen washi papers using traditional tools. Every year, the museum attracts approximately 150,000 visitors.
In Papyrus House, you’ll see many visitors enjoying traditional papermaking processes on their own. People can create their own patterns using pressed flowers and add colors using liquid
Designs of papers become clearly visible after draining excess water
colorants. The most exciting moment comes when they drain excess water and see their designs become clearly visible. Then the papers are dried on a rack and they have their own papers to take home. The whole process will take approximately 30 minutes and the papers you created can be used to make post many kinds of paper products such as post cards, bookmarks, and coasters.
Udatsu Paper & Craft Museum is in the old traditional house built in the Edo period and used to belong to a papermaking family. The
building was moved and restored to house Japan’s only one studio where visitors can observe the whole process of the traditional papermaking methods. In this building, local artisans make papers, clean and dry them right in front of the visitors.
Annual washi paper market called “Kami to Kami no Matsuri (Festival for gods and papers” ) are held in early May
One of the artisans here, Akiko Tamamura, 71, started her career as a traditional papermaker when she was 16 years old. “Washi is a very strong paper that can last over the centuries. I want to hand this wonderful tradition on to younger generations,” she said.