PAPER INDUSTRY. 



407 



is most notable, after the beautiful Hoshd It, too, contains 20 per 

 cent, of Edgeworthia pulp, but is free from starch, and serves prin- 

 cipally, as its name indicates, to cover the lattices of Shoji, or 

 sliding-doors, thus taking the place of window-panes. 



UsiLgo is a thin Gampi-shi or Gampi-paper which appears 

 in commerce in large sheets. Like the smaller Gampi-paper, it 

 is manufactured from Wickstroemia bark without Nori, and is 

 excellently suited for pricking patterns, for writing, and for making 

 statistical tables. It is much used as copying-paper in foreign 

 business houses in Japan, and will probably find further use in 

 Europe also, on account of its pliancy, smoothness, strength, fine- 

 ness and lightness. 



The finer pliant Japanese papers, such as Yoshino-gami, Tengu- 

 j6, and Gampi, and Senka (which is made soft and delicate as the 

 finest chamois-skin by means of the crimping process), are ex- 

 cellent substitutes for old linen and lint in bandages. Chinese 

 bast-paper, not so fine and soft, has long been used for surgical 

 purposes in the hospitals of Hongkong and Shanghai. 



In recent times it has often been successfuly attempted to use 

 the stronger, smooth Nori papers, such as Hosho, in colour 

 printing and map making. Taking up the colours, as they do, 

 without being first moistened, the lines of the drawing are per- 

 fectly retained in printing, whereas in printing with colours on our 

 papers the moistening produces an irregular expansion or distor- 

 tion. 



Pasteboard or Ita-me-gami, i.e. " Board paper," is made in Japan, 

 by fastening together, with Shofu-nori, or wheat-starch paste, 

 sheets of common paper, the process being therefore similar to 

 that employed in Europe for the so-called glued pasteboard. Thus 

 very beautiful, stout Ita-me-gami is obtained if 10 to 20 sheets 

 of Hosokawdy a Broussonetia-bast paper from lyo, are pasted to- 

 gether. A great deal of pasteboard is made directly, by this process, 

 from the better sort of Suki-gae, or waste paper, and even from 

 old business documents, and other paper already used (H6-gu). 

 When covered with a coating of nice, fresh paper, the Ita-me- 

 gami looks handsome enough. 



Hari-7i7iki is Japanese papier - mache.i The preparation of 

 papier-mache, however, differs from the last mentioned process, 

 in that the paper is pressed in forms after being softened in water 

 and reduced to a pulp (pate), while Hari-nuki is made like paste- 

 board. All Hari-nuki products consist, therefore, of so-called 

 " couched boards." The douching is done over wooden forms. 

 The light H6n-gu, already written on or printed, is used, in case the 

 objects are to be lacquered afterward ; or better, unused paper, 

 under other circumstances. Sheet after sheet is stuck on with 

 wheat-starch paste, and smoothed out over the wet Kata, or form, 



* The word is derived from Hari, -ru = to stretch out, to spread ; and Nuki, 

 -ku = to draw out. 



