Making Washi

Going anywhere with a motley crew of preschoolers is always a challenge, and guaranteed to tax anyone’s patience. But try packing a gaggle of exuberant little English-speaking Japanese kids onto an excursion bus for a craft museum visit. Even a 5-minute walk to the field, leaves us frazzled and exasperated. But that doesn’t mean we don’t do it. Because we do.

I’m always scrounging around for new venues for field trips with my Sunny-Side Up! preschool students. One little impediment is that most places only conduct classes or demonstrations in Japanese. Since we’re an English Immersion Preschool, that doesn’t work. A couple of months ago, we had a photographer from England visiting. He was in Japan shooting mountain towns to document their unfortunate demise. Randomly, I took him to a culturally and agriculturally thriving little town about 40 minutes away by car. I hadn’t been there since my first year in Japan, so didn’t know what to expect. We had no joy at the craft beer place. Monday is their off day. We also never found Kaneko-san’s place, a well-known organic grower friend of our own local grower friends. On one last whim, we followed the signs to a place optimistically named Saitama Traditional Craft Hall. They too were shuttered up, I guess nothing much happens on Mondays in Ogawa-machi. But peering through the smoked glass windows, the Craft Hall looked promising and so the next day I had my assistant make the call.

For about $2 per person, the kids could each make a sheet of paper. That sounded like a good deal to me, so we reserved for our upcoming field trip. I figured I’d deal with the issue of Japanese explanations when we got there. My theory was that the ladies could tell us the instructions, then we’d tell the kids how to make the paper in English. Yeah, that was the theory. Try getting Japanese ladies of “a certain age” to follow those rules.

The Japanese part was a disaster, but the kids had fun and the paper turned out very cool. You may wonder why obsess about the language. Unless we strictly enforce the “no Japanese” rule, the kids will speak to the teachers in English, but will naturally speak to their friends in Japanese. And once they create these relationships in Japanese, it will be almost impossible to bend them into English. I know, because when I started SSU!, not wanting to introduce “language negativity,” I never told them “no Japanese.” I just assumed the kids would organically begin switching over to English as they got better in the language. Didn’t happen.

Early on in Year Two, we initiated the No Japanese rule and that has been in place ever since. It took me the following two years to wrest the group into an only English environment. I won’t go into all of my methods, though a couple involved private sessions at “Nancy’s House” (everyone is desperate to come to our house for some reason) and well-placed money rewards. No shame here. It worked.

You may have noticed recurring photos of my more photogenic students at SSU!. The boy grinning impishly out of the lead photo is Ibuki. He came to us at 1 and 7 months and is now 6 years old. He has grown up in our schoolhouse, and is one strong little boy. And passionate as well. But I don’t need to tell you that, you can see it in his face.

I take very seriously the responsibility of growing little human beings. And believe deeply that we are planting seeds in these children that will flourish for many years to come. It is heart breaking when children leave the fold, but I know we’ve touched their lives, so feel comfort in that. And even now I get visits from ex-English conversation students from the early years when “the school,” called “Nancy’s English Club,” was merely a classroom in our home. They often report that they’ve continued with English, or perhaps have spent time living abroad, and it is warming to know that I made a lasting impression in their lives.

And that feeling makes it all worthwhile. No one gets rich teaching kids and certainly by the standards of fellow Stanford graduates, I wouldn’t call my little school a success. But I can’t imagine being the CEO someone predicted I would become back in the days at Stanford, affectionately know as “the Farm.”

I grew up in an oiled redwood house that shimmered iridescent silver in the rain.  The house was designed by William Hemple, an architect who had studied in Japan.  He built the house in a square around a screened over courtyard with rice paper plants growing in the corner and glass doors surrounding.  We had a Japanese garden with a slatted fence spanning our dining room and kitchen and the floors were cork.  The furniture was minimalistic Danish modern from House of Today in Palo Alto.  It was the ‘50’s.

As I write about my life here in Japan I think a lot about how the House is the center of our life and I also think about that Japanese-influenced oiled redwood house with the rice paper plants and sliding glass doors that planted a seed in me that grew and eventually brought me to Japan.

But what does this have to do with making Japanese paper anyhow?

Not much really, though I always did think our rice paper plant actually was used for making what we foolish Americans erroneously call "rice paper." In fact, handmade paper is most appropriately called washi  (literally Japanese paper) and has a gorgeous pulpy, tactile texture that takes dyes beautifully. Washi is my new favorite present to bring to the U.S., if I can just figure out a way not to smash it in transit.

 

And here’s how we made washi with the kids…

 

The teacher sets a rattan mold on top of a wooden frame.

With her help, the child dips the mold into the pulpy water.

With her help, the child dips the mold into the pulpy water.

With her help, the child dips the mold into the pulpy water

With back and forth motions, the child swishes the frame to catch the pulp. It's harder than it looks (we adults didn't fare so well).

   

Once the rattan mold has accumulated enough paper pulp, the teacher releases it from the frame.

With her help, the child dips the mold into the pulpy water

The Teacher gently lifts the pulp-coated rattan mat from the frame...

 

And brings it gingerly to the pile of other paper the kids have made (each marked with a piece of washi marked with their name).

With her help, the child dips the mold into the pulpy water

She expertly lays the rattan mat squarely on the pile...

With her help, the child dips the mold into the pulpy water

And lifts the mat from the pulp, leaving the wet "sheet" behind on the pile of other just-made paper.

 

Et voilà! The stack of freshly made paper dries on a rack, and magically separates when fully dried.

Comments

[Mora Chartrand]

Loved this segment, Nancy. From the photos to the washi making explanation, you provided a wonderful glimpse into the process. Linda and I have visited several small washi makers during our Japan travels. I'm continually amazed at the beauty, not only of the end product, but especially the process itself. How heart warming to know the effect SSU! has had on past students and current alike. Congrats!

[Nancy Merrick]

Wonderful!

[Diane Miller]

Hi Nancy, I featured this post on my end of week "For Your Consideration"http://spoonandchair.com/2010/07/15/for-your-consideration-indigo-days-making-washi/ Hope you don't mind.

[Garrett]

Oh goodness, Nancy, I want to have your adventures.

[Sarah O'Toole]

Ibuki! His smile has not changed one bit! Sounds like a good trip Nancy.

[nancy@gol.com]

Mora: It's funny that we never did this until now and the preschool part of the school is in its 11th year. Also the shop has very cool stuff, I guess you know how hard it is sometimes to wade through the crap when you're in "omiyage-land." I'm totally jaded by these cities, even Kyoto, where every shop sells the same thing. Give me the dusty, dirty shop any time...or the flea market. Hope you and Linda will have time to come our way this winter.

Diane: I'll comment on your blog...thanks for the "shout out."

Garrett: ...But then you have all of yours...fire, robbery...the cat...and more.

Sarah: I think the most recent post will resonate with you and Phil as you both came for dinner at the last SSU! venue along with Sylvan. The Hachisu boys have bugged out, but Momoka was a killer assistant. And Kaito was in super helping mode. Also, I've got things totally whipped into shape, so it was a great night. My new system is to have the kids come to the Saturday program at 12:00, so basically it's just the night (5 pm to 9 am next day). No more car excursions...so much more doable.

[Carolina Larrea]

Trabajo en papel hecho a mano hace muchos años y especialmente haciendo washi. Llegué a esta página por casualidad y realmente fue un bálsamo para el alma. Simplemente maravilloso. Los felicito!
Saludos desde Chile

[A Facebook User]

We have a lot in common in seems...I would love to meet you someday.
Lauren