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Scraping bark

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posted on 2025-01-22, 10:49 authored by Daphne Mohajer va PesaranDaphne Mohajer va Pesaran
Archival photograph of a local woman scraping the black and green bark from steamed paper mulberry branches in preparation for making papermaking pulp, circa 1950s, photo likely taken by Nobumitsu Katakura. This photo is especially relevant as it shows an elderly person performaing this task. There was a point in the early 20th century where the skills and knowledge related to papermaking almost disappeared in Shiroishi, and it was the task of the Ōshu Shiroishi Local Industrial Art Research Institute in the 1930s to learn from people such as these elderly locals and revive the craft traditions of papermaking and paper finishing

Funding

Endangered Material Knowledge Programme

History

Session

A01

Rights owner

Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran

Cultural group

Japanese

Country

Japan

Place

Shiroishi, Miyagi

Item/object

Branches

Techniques of production

steamed

Materials

Bark-paper mulberry bark

Cultural context/event

General production

Social group setting

Community

Location

Workshop

Temporality

photo taken circa 1950s, harvest and material processing normally takes place in winter time around January. Papermaking was traditionally winter work for farmers who couldn’t grow crops in the wintertime

Intent

Preparing pulp

Date of creation

2020-01-24

Unique ID

2019SG04-A01-0007

Usage metrics

    Endangered Material Knowledge Programme

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