Asakusa paper

During the Edo period, this miscellaneous paper was produced in the Edo/Asakusa Sanya area. Made from waste paper, it was usually black in color and was called kuroho and widely used for tissues and wipes. Also, paper that was re-cooked in lime water before being re-cooked was white in color and called shiroho and was used for low-grade books. As Sato Nobuhiro's Keizai Yoroku (1827) states, "The people living near Edo make 100,000 ryo a year from suki-kaeshi paper," it was a legitimate paper-making industry. As it was an essential part of the everyday lives of ordinary people, it often appears in senryu poems from the Edo period. As this area became a bustling shopping district after the Meiji period, paper-making businesses were dispersed and relocated to surrounding areas, but as Western-style mechanical paper-making became more popular in the region, the small handmade paper-making businesses gradually closed down or disappeared altogether. However, the name Asakusa paper has long remained familiar to the common people, even as its form and place of production have changed.

[Machida Masayuki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸時代に、江戸・浅草山谷(さんや)付近で生産された雑用紙。故紙を原料とした漉(す)き返し紙で、普通は色が黒く、黒保(くろほう)とよばれて鼻紙や落し紙に広く使われた。また、漉き返す前に石灰水で蒸解し直したものは色が白く、白保(しろほう)と称して低級本の用紙にも使用された。佐藤信淵(のぶひろ)の『経済要録』（1827）に、「江戸近在の民は、抄(すき)返し紙を製すること、毎年十万両に及ぶ」とあるように、れっきとした製紙産業の一つであった。庶民の日常生活に欠かせないものであったため、江戸時代の川柳などにもよく出てくる。明治以後この地が繁華街となるにつれて、製紙業は周辺の地に分散移転したが、さらに洋式の機械製紙が地方で盛んになるにつれ、手漉きの零細業者はしだいに転廃業して跡を絶った。しかし浅草紙の名は、形や産地が変わってもなお長く庶民に親しまれている。

［町田誠之］

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