Japon Vellum is a paper used to create books and other printed materials in Japan during the Edo period. It’s made from the mulberry tree’s inner bark and is known for its thin, smooth, translucent surface. Japon Vellum was famous for its beauty and strength, so authors frequently used it to make covers for fragile books or to produce calligraphy or paintings.
The Japanese book industry experienced significant growth during the Edo period because novels and other popular forms of writing were published on Japon Vellum – giving them an extra touch of class.
Japan continued using this type of paper until around 1870, when Western-style paper mills started to appear. Today, just a few traditional Japanese paper makers keep producing small quantities, which are appreciated by some artists or calligraphers who like high-quality materials with unique features.
Japon Vellum is made from the inner bark of a mulberry tree (kōzo). The kōzo trees are indigenous to Japan and have been used as a source material for making paper since ancient times. The process begins with stripping off the bark from living trees, rinsing away any sap by boiling it, pounding it into pulp, then forming sheets.
A distinguishing feature of Japon vellums is their strength and resilience. They also tend to be acid-free; this makes them ideal for archiving purposes where preserving cultural heritage or documents for long-term reference is essential.
Given these qualities, they tend to appear as bookbinding (because they can endure multiple openings) and in items such as endpapers (the blank pages at both ends) inside hardcovers and book covers themselves.
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