Washi Memories
By Eleanor Burkett
Old School Press (2023)
Official Website
Review by Philip Meredith (*)
The decorative binding of Eleanor Burkett‘s beautiful book on Japanese handmade paper, Washi Memories, gives a hint of what is to follow between the covers. The boards have been covered with suminagashi, a delicately marbled paper that employs the mercurial technique of floating coloured inks in a constant state of movement on a vat of water. The swirling, concentric rings of colour are captured and transferred at the moment that the sheet of paper is lowered onto the surface of the liquid.
Just as suminagashi alludes to the flow and movement of water that is essential to the marbling method, so does nagashizuki, the term that refers to the fluid movements of the papermaking technique that she goes on to describe and illustrate in her text. And like the suminagashi covers, the tipped-in photos in the book serve to capture the flowing movements of the papermakers and the liquid qualities of their materials in action.
Books containing samples of Japanese handmade paper are always a delight to look at and handle, but this publication is more than that: in some ways it recalls Jugaku Bunsho’s Papermaking by Hand in Japan (Tokyo,1959), or Timothy Barret’s Nagashizuki; The Japanese Craft of Hand Papermaking (Bird and Bull Press, 1979), in that both are written with a sense of personal involvement and anecdotal detail. But whereas Jugaku writes as an academic, and Barrett as a papermaker per se, Burkett approaches her subject with the sensibility of a paper / fibre artist and researcher who has for many years worked with, understands, and has a love of Japanese paper.
Her feelings are apparent and run through her work which begins with her first encounter with the papermakers of Kamikawasaki when she lived in Fukushima, in Northern Japan in the 1980s. It resumes with a more recent visit to the same area and people in 2019 and records the changes that she sees in the papermaking community.
The book, with a foreword by paper historian Sydney E. Berger, contains Burkett’s own observations and comments, sometimes poignant, on her memories and interactions. The text is special in that, unusually, it also includes the commentaries and words of the papermakers themselves, in their own voice, which are supplemented by the superbly reproduced black and white photographs of the families and their workplaces from the 1950s. Each stage in the papermaking process is clearly delineated, documented and illustrated, and includes pertinent information on the specialities of the local production and the papermaker’s regional vocabulary.
A craft with a history of many centuries, papermaking in Japan has sometimes been described as unchanging in many ways, but this account documents and describes the changes that have taken place in recent times and some of the factors that have led to them. It is an unfortunate fact that papermaking by hand in Japan has seen a gradual decline in recent years, but there has been an encouraging, although limited, return to the craft and production seen in certain districts. This is exemplified in the case of Kamikawasaki where, as described by Burkett, despite the cessation of activity in almost all households, there are papermakers who have returned or come anew to the craft. With the guidance of those who can teach them they are working to ensure its continuance.
An especial bonus are the eleven paper samples included in the publication that provide a tactile supplement to the written descriptions of the papers produced in Kamikawasaki. They include examples of the robust sheets primarily made for papering shoji windows, coloured, dyed and processed papers, as well as two examples of sheets printed for the wrapping and packaging of the finished product.
This is a book that will be of interest to paper researchers and historians, papermakers, fibre artists, paper conservators and anyone who wishes to learn more about the handmade papers of Japan and their production.
On a technical note, the production of the book is impressive. Printed and published by the Old School Press in 2023 in an edition of 150 copies, it includes 30 tipped-in reproductions of black and white photographs, 11 samples of handmade papers and 2 packaging slips. The hardback quarto volume measures 28 x 20 cm. The suminagashi paper used for the covers was specially made by Sarah Amatt.
(*) Philip Meredith is Higashiyama Kaii Conservator of Japanese Paintings Emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.