MANUFACTURE OF PAPER. 15 
making machinery is being employed 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 ‘* onagashi” 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 
