History of Washi (From the Origins of Paper)

I wrote in the previous installment that the prototype for papermaking was invented in 105 AD by the Chinese monk Cai Lun, but I would like to add some supplementary information regarding that point.

Until then, it seems that what was originally called "paper" was made by scooping up and flattening the fine dust produced during the process of making floss silk (silk spread out into sheets) from waste cocoons (cocoons that silkworms had eaten through to emerge as adults). However, this was a luxury item that only a very few people could obtain, and wooden or bamboo slips were used for official government records.
However, when Cai Lun created "paper" using materials such as hemp rags, the cost issues associated with silk paper and the bulkiness of wooden and bamboo slips were resolved, and his invention spread throughout China. Nevertheless, the manufacturing method was kept secret as part of their foreign strategy, and for a long time, only the finished products were exported.

Eventually, the technique spread to the Korean Peninsula, and it is said that in 610 AD, Damjing, one of the monks sent by the King of Goguryeo, brought papermaking technology to Japan along with methods for manufacturing ink and coloring techniques. However, it is believed that the first paper itself arrived in 239 AD, when Emperor Ming of Wei presented an imperial edict to Himiko of Wa.

The oldest existing Japanese-made paper is the family register paper from Mino (Gifu Prefecture), Chikuzen (Fukuoka Prefecture), and Buzen (Fukuoka Prefecture) dating to the second year of Taiho (702), which is kept in the Shosoin. Furthermore, according to documents from the ninth year of Tenpyo (737), it is known that papermaking was also being conducted in Mimasaka (Okayama Prefecture), Izumo (Shimane Prefecture), Harima (Hyogo Prefecture), Mino (Gifu Prefecture), and Etchu (Toyama Prefecture), suggesting that papermaking technology spread widely throughout the country within about 100 years of its introduction.

Around that time in Japan, a centralized form of national governance centered on the Emperor began with the enactment of the Taiho Code in the first year of Taiho (701). This was the first attempt in Japan to govern the country through laws, and the compilation of its contents was based on the Chinese legal system. Some view the implementation of this system as an attempt to demonstrate an awareness of independence from China.

The Taiho Code stipulated the Ritsu (penal code) and the Ryo (administrative organization, taxation, labor, etc.). To operate these smoothly, various records had to be kept, such as information transmission between the central government and provincial governments, as well as family registers and tax records for collecting taxes from the populace. In other words, the demand for paper increased.

Accompanying the Taiho Code, the "Zushoryo" (Bureau of Archives) was established to handle tasks such as managing the nation's book collection and compiling national history, and a papermaking workshop was set up within it to produce official paper. This meant that a system for self-sufficiency in paper had been established.

There are other factors behind the increase in demand for paper.
It was the flourishing of "shakyo" (sutra copying), where sutras were transcribed and reproduced as Buddhism spread throughout the country. The personnel who performed sutra copying were also affiliated with the Zushoryo, just like those in papermaking.

The fact that large-scale projects such as the copying of a thousand copies of the Lotus Sutra were carried out under the leadership of the Zushoryo makes it clear that a large number of personnel were introduced into the departments of sutra copying and papermaking.
Although printing technology using woodblocks was also introduced around this time, it is said that the technology had not yet reached the level required to express the fine Chinese characters of the sutras. Furthermore, sutra copying was not merely a reproduction task; carefully transcribing each character of the sutra was considered an act of accumulating merit. It was also a part of Buddhist practice, praying for the peace and security of individuals and the nation.

In this way, the Japanese people made foreign techniques their own.
A certain papermaker once told me that "what is needed is not subsidies, but work," and as a maker of cloth myself, I believe that for a certain technology to advance, it is important—or rather, it is the only way—to engage with it sincerely as a job and to gain experience through repetition.