Awa Washi

A 9th-century document confirms that the history of Awa Washi goes back some 1,300 years to times when a family known as Inbe serving the Imperial court, was growing flax and paper mulberry and producing cloth and paper. Ever since then, the paper-making techniques of Awa Washi have been handed down from one generation to the next in an act of reverent deification of Ame no Hiwashi no Mikoto, the originator of paper-making traditions within the Inbe family. With the kind of delicate texture and coloring that can only be achieved with a handmade paper, Awa Washi is soft, supple and surprisingly strong. An indigo dyed paper is representative of the naturally dyed papers made, which rank among the finest of the art, craft and wrapping papers.

Tokushima