MANUFACTURE OF PAPER. 15 



making machinery is being emplo} T ed in the manufacture of the finer 

 grades of mitsumata paper for export to America. These machines 

 are rotary, steam-heated drums for macerating the pulp with caustic 

 soda, and the regular pulping tanks for separating the fibers and in 

 which the blanching process is carried on. In the mill which the 

 writer visited the same bamboo hand sieves were employed by the 

 operators in making the sheets from vats of the pulp, so that the 

 papers made by this mill should still be classed as handmade papers. 



The laborers at work in separating the inner from the outer bark 

 were getting only 9 to 10 cents gold a day, and it seemed as if the 

 work was so mechanical in nature that it could easily be done by 

 machines; but this question could only be decided by an investigation 

 made by experts in such matters. The question also whether the 

 hand sieves could be done away with and continuous-process machines 

 substituted for them must be settled by repeated trials. Problems 

 which appear much more complicated have been solved by American 

 mechanics. 



THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER PAPER. 



"Tsuboya" paper is a most peculiar looking substance. It resem- 

 bles oilcloth, but has a texture more nearly resembling that of fine 

 leather, except that it is more or less translucent, like oiled pigskin. 

 In the province of Ise, Japan, are noted manufacturers of tobacco 

 pouches who use only this leather paper in their manufacture, and the 

 variety of styles in which they make their papers is remarkable. 



Yamada, where Seibei Ikebe (who is probably the most noted maker) 

 has his shop, is a favorite place for pilgrims, and for several genera- 

 tions Ikebe and others have sold them their paper tobacco pouches 

 until it has become the fashion for every pilgrim to bring back from 

 his pilgrimage to Yamada a paper pouch as a souvenir. 



Some of these leather papers are smooth and almost transparent; 

 others are rough and stamped with pretty patterns, a host of different 

 colors being used in their printing. They are in character a kind of 

 wrinkled oiled cardboard and the process of their manufacture is a 

 tedious though comparatively simple one. 



A thick, weak cardboard called '•onagashr'' paper, which is manu- 

 factured of bark fiber in one of the interior towns near Gifu, is 

 imported into Yamada in large quantities. Before processing it is soft 

 and tough, but will break like any thin cardboard. To transform it 

 the sheets are moistened and then wrapped about a small round stick 

 the size of a broom handle. Several sheets are wrapped at a time, 

 separated from each other by special dry papers which have been 

 painted with persimmon juice to tan them, and the roll of these papers 

 is finally wrapped with a cloth and tied. This roll, out of both ends 

 of which the stick protrudes, is put under a long lever, one end of the 



