How is Chiyogami made?

Chiyogami is possibly our most popular paper. Strong, beautiful and versatile, these papers are available in a seemingly endless selection of colours and patterns. It is easy to admire Chiyogami for it's beauty alone but what is even more impressive is understanding the time and craftsmanship that goes into making just a single sheet.

The base paper of each sheet of Chiyogami is made of a combination of kozo and sulphite. The kozo gives the paper it's characteristic strength and softness while the sulphite makes it possible to produce these papers at a reasonable cost.

To create a single sheet of Chiyogami, each base sheet is silkscreened with as many colours as there are in that particular pattern – in most cases, four or five colours. After the base sheet has been pasted to a wooden board for stability during the silkscreening process, the first screen silkscreen is registered and ink applied. Each sheet of paper is dried on racks to allow the ink to dry between applications. The screens for subsequent colours are painstakingly registered so that the colour layers lie precisely in relation to each other.

The following are samples showing each stage of this process. The last picture shows the result of this labour intensive process – an incredibly beautiful sheet of Chiyogami.