名塩紙の紹介 英語版

　10年以上前に、名塩紙漉きの人間国宝谷野武信さんから、英語による名塩紙の紹介文を依頼されました。拙いながら、当時作成した紹介文を掲載しておきます。

                            Najio Gampishi

 Najio Gampishi is the Japanese paper made with Gampi (Diplomorpha sikokiana) in Najio area.

 Gampi or Ganpi are a group of Japanese shrubs, members of the genus Wikstroemia, some of which have been used for making paper since the 8th century. It is used to make the high quality Washi(Japanese paper), as are Kozo and Mitsumata trees.
Gampishi has a smooth, shiny surface, and was called Hishi (斐紙=beautiful paper). or Kaminoou（紙の王= king of paper).
 Najio area means Old Najio village, now in Nishinomiya city, Hyougo prefecture, located to the west of Osaka.

 It is the characteristic of Najio Gampishi to mix the soil (fine particles of rock) in the making process. The soil has 5 colors, and is taken at the foot of a mounmtain or at a terrace in Najio area. The soil belongs to a stratum called the second tuff of the Miocene Kobe group.

The words indicating the type of Japanese paper seems to be confused in the long history of papermaking.
For example, the original meaning of torinoko is egg, and Torinoko-gami had meant Eggshell color (pale yellow) paper, but the name Torinoko-gami became generalized since the end of the Kamakura period(the 14th century). And now all gampishi came to be called Torinoko-gami. 
Torinoko color : RGB 226,190,159. Hexadecimal color Code is #E2BE9F.

 Maniai-shi is specialty product of Najio.
Maniai means suitability in Japanese. The width of Maniai-shi is about 94 cm, and is suitable for a Japanese sliding door and a shoji-screen. For the basic unit of length in Japanese constructions has been 1ken (1 間 about 180cm), and the width of the sliding door of Japan(襖 fusuma) and shoji-screen(障子) is its half (半間 about 90cm).
Because there was a custom to draw a picture on the sliding door in Japan, the Maniai-shi for sliding doors was a canvas of the pictures, and good-quality paper is demanded. Maniai-shi is good-quality paper satisfying this high demand.

名塩紙の紹介

Introduction of Najio Gampishi and Takenobu Tanino 

https://nishinomiya-style.jp/glossary/najio-washi