Japanese culture was given another global pat-on-the-back after UNESCO designated Japanese traditional paper-making techniques an intangible cultural heritage last month. The craftsmanship for washi, as Japanese-style paper is called, is passed down from generation to generation within families and local communities that have specialized in the craft for centuries. This recognition will help to protect a marvelous cultural tradition that is in danger of becoming lost in an increasingly paperless age.
As more and more of daily life moves from paper to digital form, washi becomes all the more relevant and fascinating. Many young people in Japan have perhaps rarely, if ever, written a letter by hand, or received one, on traditional washi paper. This generation's digitalization is a significant break from Japan's cultural history, which abounds with beautiful poetry, important documents and official certificates, not to mention all those love letters in "The Tale of Genji," all written on washi.
Graduation certificates, marriage invitations and New Year's cards still feel most heartfelt and refined when written on beautifully made paper. There remains a vast gulf of feeling and meaning between a mailed thank-you note written by hand on paper made from the pulp of the kozo tree — a type of mulberry tree — in a laborious process dating back to the Heian Period and receiving a standard-font text message with a mass-produced, cutesy sticker while standing on a rush-hour train. The former is an elegant, human expression; the latter a technology-mediated everyday occurrence.