World Papers and Washi The development of Western papers Visitors to Japan in the midst of its modernization during the Meiji period were impressed by the variety of ways Japanese people used wood, bamboo and paper in their daily livies and by the many kinds of beautiful and durable papers. The new Meiji government took part in the World Exposition in Vienna in 1872 to promote Japanese culture and exhibited almost 400 items related to Japanese paper. Most of these are still kept in a library in Leipzig. The following year, the German government commissioned Johannes Justus REIN to research Japanese industries. The report of his three-year study describes in detail a range of uses for washi. This outside interest in washi was not the result of Japan's perceived exoticism, but came rather from a European shortage of raw materials for paper, the demand for which had skyrocketed in tandem with the development of printing. In the early 17th century, the French scientist Rene Antoine Ferchault REAUMUR observed bees building a hive and hypothesized that it was possible to make paper by grinding up wood and joining the fibers. Jacob Cristian SCHAEFFER, a German, developed this hypothesis by trying to make paper from ground plant fibers. With the invention of the wood grinder it became possible to produce ground pulp, or mechanical pulp, in sufficient quantities for papermaking. Chemical pulp was developed for practical use a few years later. As the materials and methods of papermaking changed, pulp and paper manufacturing grew into modern industries. Foreign paper, or machine-made paper, began to enter Asian countries. The history of paper traces its movement eastward from China to Japan, where it became refined into beautiful Japanese papers and part of a unique culture. At the same time paper moved westward, where its development flourished after a long journey across Europe. Having followed different paths for more than 1,000 years, these two kinds of paper once again met in Japan in a fusion of eastern and western cultures, a fusion that is still under way today. The industrial manufacturing of paper has become a major economic sector in modern Japan ; yet while Japanese people consume western paper in their daily living, they haven't forgotten the aesthetic values underlying the nation's handmade washi. This integrated viewpoint was praised by the American artist Dard HUNTER, who said that the combination of convenience and beauty seen in washi is characteristic of the Japanese way of living. All images Copyright. 1997 Kansai International Public Relations Promotion Office. All Rights Reserved.