Often inspired by textile and kimono patterns which include symbolic and seasonal motifs, designers of chiyogami continue to expand the options to ever-new heights. Cranes for longevity, bamboo for flexibility, cherry blossoms for the fleeting nature of life, and pine boughs for perseverance are a few of the hundreds of symbols printed in endless colours and combinations.

The individual layers of colour are silkscreened on one by one requiring careful registration of each screen. The base paper is a combination of kozo and sulphite and the pigments used are fade resistant resulting in a strong, soft and versatile decorative paper.

Description courtesy The Japanese Paper Place - my supplier

The work involved in making these papers is incredible. Do a search on YouTube. You’ll likely find the process related to fabrics, but it’s the same for the paper. It’s simply amazing to see and really makes one appreciate these papers a whole lot more.

These papers are quite thick and as a result, the light able to pass through is cut down significantly. These papers are therefor best suited for their beauty as they do illuminate beautifully.

What I suggest is using this paper on one face only where possible, if it’s heavily covered with ink, call it a beauty face and using other more plain papers for the top, sides and back. This way the lantern or lamp is still able to illuminate the immediate surrounding space from the faces less heavily decorated.

CAD$18 + shipping for custom papers.

Papers that are in stock - if only using on the front main face, cost is around $3.50

Here is a link to our suppliers catalog.

Here is another link to a “map” layout of the papers.

The slideshow contains the papers I currently have in stock, but please confirm first. Each paper has a unique number, by saving the image from slideshow you will find a number starting with CHY or WAZ, this is the paper ID. You can enter this into the search bar of the website link above, to find this paper and more.