Immediately after graduating from university, my friend introduced me to an organic farm. I stayed for about a month.

There, while making a living from organic farming, they aim to live as one with the earth.
They sow seeds, grow vegetables and rice, and raise pigs, chickens, and goats.
They receive nourishment from what they nurture themselves.
While I contemplated what I would do with my life, I thought,

“What kind of “living” do I want?”

I want to live a sustainable and cyclical life, and I wanted to make crafts that connect with nature.
I did research about traditional crafts.

The thing that I felt most comfortable with was Japanese paper, called Washi.
There are many processes involved in making Washi.

We must go to the mountains and do weeding in the summer to grow paper mulberry called kozo.
We harvest in winter, and peel the bark of the kozo, in a process called “mushihagi.”

There are lots of steps for making Washi.

Various people come to help us in the winter because we are busy during the harvest season.

A spectacle like this is a modern “Yui”(It is the spirit of helping each other to complete tasks such as roof replacement and rice planting when there is not enough manpower.).

After raising kozo, boiling, and pounding…
then I can finally make paper.

Washi was born from nature, and it is blending into people's lives.
In modern lives, the use of Washi in daily life is decreasing noticeably,
but I feel that Washi has the power to connect nature and life.

Washi has a warmth, but it also has a certain strength.
This is probably because it reflects the effort and scene in which the materials were grown.

While looking for various production areas,
I ended up in Kochi, where Tosa-Washi is produced.
In Kochi, where a beautiful river called the Niyodo River flows,
I am making paper.