Papermaking in Japan—Part 3

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Arrival in Nagaoka

I arrived in town about an hour before the other participants and walked to my hotel, the Route Inn Nagaoka Ekimae just across the street from the train station. It was before the check-in time of 3pm, and I expected to have to leave my luggage in storage until then, but my room was already ready so I got to check in early. Paul Denhoed, the workshop organizer, had already made all the booking arrangements including my extra night’s stay after the workshop due to the timing of my return flight.

I returned to the train station to meet everyone else as they arrived, and we all trekked back to the hotel and checked in. Paul actually lives in Tokyo so he was also staying at the hotel. One interesting perq of the hotel was that you had the option to forego some of the full daily room cleanings, and instead receive tokens for either of the dispensing machines near the lobby, one for alcoholic beverages, and one for non-alcoholic. The tokens are different and so you have to decide when you collect the tokens, though I expect you could trade them at the front desk.

Daily schedule

Every day, we would get breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Breakfast was a buffet which included some western items (generally scrambled eggs, bacon or sausages, and bread) but was mostly Japanese food usually also with some other Asian offering like a curry or stir-fry. There was always soup, and a rice dispensing machine—you put your bowl on the stand and press a button for a small, medium or large serving!

The rice dispenser. I had already learned the kanji for small (小) and large(大) from the flush buttons on the toilets

One day’s partially-eaten breakfast. Selection and camera framing varied from day to day

Through the workshop, after breakfast we would meet in the hotel lobby around 8:30. From there, Imai-san would ferry us in a rented van to the Oguni studio, perhaps a 20 or 30 minute drive. On the way out of Nagaoka we would stop each day at a Harashin grocery store and each of us would pick out some take-out pre-made meal for lunch. The Oguni studio is out in the countryside so there are no convenient lunch places nearby. Lunches were included with the workshop fees, so Imai-san (or, perhaps, Paul) would purchase all our chosen food.

Once at the studio, we would go through the morning program for the day, and then eat lunch in the studio where one section was set off as a sort of meeting area with chairs and a large table. We’d make tea or coffee and miso soup to accompany the lunches we had picked out. Most days, someone will have chosen some dish, often strawberries or other fruit, to share amongst ourselves with lunch.

The meeting table where we ate lunch. Here we are actually examining booklets of sample papers Paul has prepared for us

The lunch area was also sort of the display area for products when customers visit the studio, so there was a rack of paper samples, as well as various cards and gifts.

After lunch we had the afternoon program for the day. Once that was done, if we has spare time, we’d sit around the lunch table and talk paper or papermaking tools, or explore the studio asking questions about things not specifically covered in the workshop. Generally around 5 or 6pm, we’d all pile back into the van and Imai-san would drive us to someplace for dinner, a different place each day. Dinner was not included in the workshop but for convenience Imai-san would pay, and the cost would be divided and appear on our final accounting for the workshop (as would our hotel rooms).

Usually around 8 or 9pm we’d be back in our rooms for a good sleep. Imai-san would return home (almost right next to the studio) for the evening, perhaps stopping at the studio for some unfinished prep work for the next day.

Outings and side trips

In the late afternoons and evenings we had several activities outside of the studio. I may have the schedules a bit mixed-up here because this is mostly from memory, and of the photos we shared amongst ourselves only the few I took had date-stamps.

Wednesday

Mid-afternoon we had a short craft project, making a traditional style of home decoration from rice straw. This was hosted at Chihiro-san’s father’s house (IIRC), which is just across the river from the studio and next to the Imai’s own house. These items are actually more than just decoration, but traditionally are also, for lack of a better description, a sort of fertility charm to ensure a good harvest of rice. The craft is called shimenawa, and I’m sure my description underplays its social and spiritual significance.

This was the instructor’s; ours did not all turn out quite as pretty

Afterwards we returned to the studio, and Paul handed out booklets of paper samples he had made up for us, so we could see how variations in materials and techniques affect the final paper.

In the evening, we went to dinner in Nagaoka, and while waiting in our private room for the food to arrive, Chihiro-san entertained us with free-hand paper cutouts of animals we requested.

Michele’s cat, my raccoons, and Alex’s “une loutre” (otter, I had to translate for him). Unfortunately I didn’t get Clara’s photo, but I believe she asked for a mermaid

Thursday

Thursday evening, we visited the Imai’s home for dinner. Afterwards we also each made little presentations of what sort of work we’re doing and how it connects to the workshop.

Imai-san is behind the camera for this, and that’s one of his daughters at the table with us. The room dividers are all paper from his studio

Friday

With most of the workshop behind us, we went to Echigo Kawaguchi Onsen (public bath) to unwind. This place is a sort of resort, which includes hotel rooms, restaurants, rental houses, and exercise rooms in addition to the baths. Some of the outdoor bathing areas provide a spectacular view of the river valley below.

Outside the onsen as we were leaving

Clara went to the ladies’ public bath, and the four of us took a private room. This allowed us to talk freely, as loud conversation (or for that matter, pretty much any conversation) is frowned upon in the public baths, and also meant Michele would not have any hassle with his tattoos. Onsens do not allow tattoos in the public baths because of their historical association with Yakuza criminal gangs, although they will usually allow a small one if covered up.

Unwinding in the lounge after unwinding in the bath (photo by Alex)

Further unwinding with a beer before dinner at the onsen (photo by Imai-san)

Saturday

The morning was spent at the studio, finishing off some odds and ends. We returned to Nagaoka just after lunch, and did a bit of local sightseeing on the way back to town.

Then it was time for everyone to go on their way back home. Michele had to leave a bit earlier and had said his goodbyes the night before, but I was staying an extra night in Nagaoka so I accompanied everyone to the train station to see them off. I spent the late afternoon exploring the area around the train station and civic centre, and out of curiosity (and because I was admittedly getting a bit tired of rice) I walked to a nearby McDonald’s to see what a Big Mac was like in Japan. The answer: pretty much the same as back home, and about the same price too.

Other western chain brands I saw included KFC and, at least in Tokyo, 7-11 convenience stores. Apparently it is a big thing to have KFC on Christmas day in Japan!

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Papermaking in Japan—Part 2

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin, Oguni Washi intensive workshop — No Comments ↓

For my trip to Japan for the Oguni Washi intensive workshop, I opted to stay a few days in Tokyo beforehand. This gave me a better combination of travel time and airfare for the flights, and also gave me some time to adjust to the 13-hour time difference from home.

One nice surprise was the cost of things, in general. I’ve heard that Japan has a reputation of being an expensive place to travel, but I found that the costs for meals and local transportation were not much different than back home, and the hotels, at least the ones I stayed at, were cheaper than at home. It was very convenient that at the time, the Japanese Yen was worth almost exactly one Canadian cent, so converting prices in my head was trivial. Given the high standards for the transportation systems, it was actually much better value that at home. Read more ›

Papermaking in Japan—Part 1

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Kevin, Oguni Washi intensive workshop, Past Events — No Comments ↓

I recently returned from a week-long workshop on Japanese papermaking at a shop in Japan. The workshop ran from March 15th-21st, and was held at Oguni Washi, located in Oguni, about 20 minutes’ drive south of Nagaoka, in the Niigata prefecture of Japan.

The workshop was organized and facilitated by Paul Denhoed, who in the distant past was also involved in the origins of the Papertrail, and hosted by Hiroaki and Chihiro Imai who run the paper mill. Paul is originally from Toronto but has been living in Japan for 25 years. The Imais only know a few words of English, so Paul, who speaks fluent Japanese, provided services as an interpreter. Paul did most of the teaching, with Hiroaki, whom we called Imai-san (more or less “Mr. Imai” but gender-neutral) doing most of the demonstrations and material preparations. Chihiro (also “Imai-san” when Hiroaki was not around) filled in the gaps when Horiaki was out on an errand or busy with other work.

There were four participants from diverse backgrounds: myself, Alex Bonton from Montreal but originally from France, Michele (an Italian name, so pronounced mee-kay-lay) from Singapore but originally from northern Italy, and Clara from Florida but originally from Argentina. Alex has recently hosted a su-making workshop at Bishop’s University which I attended.

L-R: Clara, Michele, Paul, Alex, myself, and Imai-san in front of the studio (photo by Imai-san)

The Imais got into paper-making over 25 years ago, sort of inheriting the craft from Chihiro’s parents. They have been running the paper mill as a commercial enterprise for many of those years. Some of the paper they make finds its way onto labels for bottles of sake (rice wine) produced in the area, and their paper was also used as wallpaper (and ceiling covering and upholstery) throughout the Nagaoka civic centre.

They produce paper from kozo that they grow, when possible cooked using alkali from wood ash from their own cooking stoves, with other materials like kaki-shibu, konnyaku, and tororo-aoi roots being supplied from elsewhere. Some of the paper they produce qualifies as Oguni-gami (a controlled name referring to paper made using particular traditional materials and methods), but in the interests of commercial viability they will also use other methods, such as cooking with soda ash or beating using a naginata beater instead of by hand, producing paper which cannot be sold as “Oguni-gami”.

The workshop covered papermaking starting from the kozo bark all the way to finished paper, plus some additional topics such as traditional Japanese stab bindings, decorative sheet-forming, and paper treatments with konnyaku and kaki-shibu. In this spring workshop we also covered snow bleaching; there is also sometimes a fall workshop where the participants instead get a try at harvesting and stripping the kozo stems.

This post is the start of a series covering our journey through the papermaking process.

Monotype Computer Interface—Creeping Obsolescence

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Caster Computer Control, Kevin — 1 Comment ↓

It appears that my progress on my Monotype computer interface is so slow that parts obsolescence is catching up with me.

A few months ago I was looking into future supply of parts for the interface and found that the UDN2987 IC’s I was using had been discontinued by the manufacturer and were no longer available. These convert the individual air line signals from the low-power digital outputs of the microcontroller to high-current sources that can activate the solenoid pneumatic valves. There was nothing else with similar functionality (8 logic inputs driving 8 high-current loads) available either. All the new high-current drivers either use a custom single-bit interface to control them or use I²C (a standard for communications between digital components). This would ultimately simplify the circuit because these can all be chained and so use only one digital output on the microcontroller , whereas the current circuit needs 31 digital outputs, one for each air signal. But is still requires changing the circuit and PCB layout.

Just this week, I received a notification that the NXP LPC1343 microcontroller chip I’m using was also becoming obsolete, and only available up until about a year from now. It is also implied that the entire family of microcontrollers was discontinued. I might switch to one of the ATMega microcontrollers used in Arduino products. That should at least ensure me reasonable support into the future.

So it looks like I’m in for a major circuit redesign, but it should ultimately simplify the circuit and require a lower-line microcontroller. All that will be needed is one or two digital outputs (or I²C lines) and one analog (A/D) input to read the caster cycle sensor, a far cry from the 32 signals in the current design. On the other hand, this will allow the PCB to shrink a bit, providing an easier fit (it looks like the current version will require removing the ribbon take-up spool). The new controller version would also move the cycle sensor and re-arrange some of the other parts.

And of course the firmware for the microcontroller will also change, but the basic logic should be the same. What would need to be adapted is timing code and USB handling.

All this while I’m still making the bracket to attach the power supply to the controller I have, to finally make it into a single unit with no dangling wires!

Grimsby Wayzgoose, April 25th, 2026

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The 48th Grimsby Wayzgoose book arts fair will be held on Saturday, April 25th, 2026, and the Grimsby Public Art Gallery in Grimsby, Ontario.

This fair features dozens of artists and artisans selling their book-arts-related wares, including paper, marbling, fine press books, and printed ephemera. the Papertrail will have a table there selling some of our handmade paper, marbled paper, and other supplies for the book arts. If there is something specific you want to purchase from us, contact us ahead of the fair and we can bring your order along with us, so you avoid shipping charges.

This event takes place at the Grimsby Public Library building, 18 Carnegie Lane, Grimsby, Ontario, and runs from 9am to 5pm.

Admission is free, and free parking is available at both the front and rear entrances of the library as well as any of several nearby municipal parking lots. If you want to use public transit, the library is less than a block away from the Grimsby GO station (note this is a bus-only service; the GO Train does not stop in Grimsby, though there is infrequent Via Rail service).

BOUND Book Arts Fair, December 7th, 2025

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The annual BOUND Book Arts Fair will take place this year on Saturday, December 7th, 2025, at the Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, in Toronto (just west off Yonge, a block south of Gerrard).

This fair will feature limited edition handmade books, artist’s books, prints, broadsides, cards, ephemera, and more. We’ll have a table there (on the third floor) selling paper, both marbled and handmade, bookbinding tools and supplies, as well as a few letterpress things too!

The fair is open from 11am-5pm and admission is free.

Whitlock Timing Issue?

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — No Comments ↓

When setting up the Mackenzie Printery‘s Whitlock press for this summer’s Marshville Heritage Festival, I noticed that the press bed has a line marked across it clearly labeled “H L”. I assume this stands for “Head Line”, which is the line on the bed which aligns with the leading edge of the sheet of paper (or, perhaps, just clears the grippers).

I had noticed that the actual forme of type on the bed, which was printing at the correct place on the paper, was well over this line and in fact almost hanging over the edge of the bed. I felt this might be an issue with the timing of the press.

I took a copy of the poster that had just been printed, placed it on the inked forme still in the press (in the same orientation as the original impression), with the edge of the paper lined up with the “H L” mark, and rubbed the back of the paper to take a crude impression of the form. The two impressions were about 1⅛″ apart. This made me feel that the bed was off by a tooth in the gearing that drives it. I also took an impression of the bed drive gear using the oil/grease that was on it, and determined that the drive rack had a pitch of ¾″.

Later, when the forme had been removed, I placed some lumps of Plasticine on the press bed to measure exactly how the edges of the impression area of the cylinder lined up with the bed. This required a bit of timing finesse and manual turning of the press to get good measurements rather than just smearing off the top of the Plasticine. This is how things looked at the leading edge; unfortunately, camera perspective distorts the apparent measurements off the measuring tape. The 7″ mark lines up with the “H L” line, and the impression in the Plasticine is about at the 5⅞″ mark, confirming my other measurement.There is another fainter line on the bed ¾″ from the “H L” line, but this seems so faint, it might not be factory-original.

I did the same sort of measurement at the trailing edge, and found that the trailing edge of the cylinder was ¾″ away from the raised edge of the bed (again, perspective distorts the apparent measurement):Together, these observations imply to me that the bed should be shifted one tooth on its rack, so that the printing area of the cylinder lies between the “H L” line and the stop at the foot of the bed.

This ¾″ shift would still leave a ⅜″ discrepancy, but I think this represents the difference between the leading edge of the cylinder and the area that is safe from gripper damage. This allows a generous ⅜″ space for grippers to grab the sheet edge between the cylinder leading edge and “H L”. One of the formes we had been printing has a border all round which we want close to the edge of the paper, so this would have to be placed on the bed beyond the head line, but this is fine because the grippers on the press are set very close to the edge of the sheet.

However, the same timing discrepancy might also be caused by the cylinder itself being out of position by one tooth so I would like to do a bit more research before actually shifting the bed. The grippers and sheet lifters are all driven by the cylinder itself and would not be affected by retiming the cylinder, but changing the timing these two ways would have subtle differences in the relative motion of the cylinder and bed, particularly on the bed’s return stroke. I would have to look closely at the relative timing of the bed motion vs. when the cylinder lowers to impression height and rises again.

Changing the timing would mean that printing close to the end of a full-height sheet would require the forme to be right against the raised edge at the foot of the bed, with no room for a chase. As things stand currently there is ¾″ of room for a chase frame.

There is another Whitlock press in Cumberland, near Ottawa, and although it is not identical (it does not have the reversing stacker), I’m hoping the bed and cylinder motion are the same. I’d like to get the chance to visit it and make some measurements on it next time I’m in the area. I could measure the actual limits of the bed’s motion, and also observe the cylinder position when the bed stops moving at either end of its stroke.

Ludlow Throat Heater Replacement

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Equipment Acquisition, Repair, and Maintenance, Kevin, Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum — 1 Comment ↓

Last year I had noticed that the Ludlow Typograph Model L at the Mackenzie Printery was taking a long time to warm up and was also producing poor slugs unless it was casting more or less continuously. Some investigation with an ohmmeter revealed that the throat heater circuit was open. The pot on the Ludlow has three heaters, a main one for the pot proper, one for the mouthpiece that contacts the mould when casting, and one for the throat which is a passage between the pump and the mouthpiece. With the throat heater out of commission, the only thing keeping the type metal in the throat molten was conduction from the main pot or constant flow of metal from the main pot by casting a lot.

The Printery had a collection of used and new-old-stock Ludlow throat heaters, part of a donation of items from Ruth Black a few years ago, so I started working on replacing the heater. This requires removing the pot, which in turn pretty much requires draining the pot (though even then it is still quite heavy). Once the pot is removed it can be flipped over and the covers for the throat heater and underside wiring can be removed. I left the wiring from the controller to the pot connected, so I had the pot perched on a chair behind the caster.I got the old heater out. It consists of a sandwich of two steel plates with mica insulation and the heating wires in between. I later did a post-mortem on this heater—see below.

This is quite different from any of the replacement heaters we had: they were all tubular heating elements cast into a rectangular block of metal, perhaps zinc. They were also generally thicker than the old heater (they were not all the same thickness) and would not fit into the cramped slot provided for the heater in the pot.I took a rough measurement of the thickness of the old heater and used my mill to thin out the chosen replacement heater, taking care not to cut into the tubular heater element embedded in the metal block. The particular heater was chosen because the angle of the emerging terminals seemed to be the best fit into the cramped cavity under the pot.

Using a fly cutter on my Sherline mill to thin out the heater

The heater ready to install. There is a small steel pin, visible near the top, which keeps the heater centered when the metal block is cast.

I installed the new heater, which involved some fiddling to get the covers to fit. The cover for the throat heater is designed to sort of wedge in place and hold the heater tight against the internal surface of the throat for good thermal transfer, and there is a thin layer of thermal insulation between the heater and this cover which had to be just right to get the cover installed.

After this fix, the Ludlow heats up and casts good slugs again, even the first slug of the day.

I later took apart the old heater. The two side plates were held together by seven flat-head steel screws, which required a manual impact screwdriver to remove (several actually snapped off). With one of the plates removed, the heater fell apart into a pile of mica along with the actual heater strips. This mica was likely more solid when new but decades of heat and humidity caused it to delaminate and fall to pieces.The fault in the heater was not the heating wire, but the connection to the the lower terminal; you can see in the photo how this terminal tab is disconnected from the heating wire. The mica insulation around the terminals was less crumbly and stayed more or less as one piece, but it shows evidence of this connection overheating and probably arcing as it failed—it was actually hot enough to melt the mica!

Melted spot in the mica caused by failing electrical connection

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Su-making Workshop at Bishop’s University

Posted on by kpmartin Posted in Hand Papermaking, Kevin, Other people, Past Events, Workshops — No Comments ↓

Last weekend, along with about ten other people, I attended a 2-day workshop on making (and using) a su (screen for Japanese-style paper making). The workshop was hosted in and around the Molson building at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville (Sherbrooke) Québec. This event was organized by Régine Neumann, who teaches at Bishop’s, and Alexandre Bonton ran the actual workshop. Alex has been experimenting with alternative materials and techniques for making a su because the traditional bamboo splints and silk thread are nearly impossible to obtain locally. Read more ›

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Dredging up Old Junk in My Mind

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When working on the computer to set up Monotype casting jobs, one thing one must specify is the Normal Wedge (commonly just called “the wedge”). This is a narrow wedge-shaped accessory to the caster which determines how wide the type should be cast, depending on which row of the matrix case the mat is in.

Monotype has many wedges, depending on the exact mix of widths required for any particular font, and the wedge is specified as a combination of the desired set-width and the layout of individual widths on the wedge. The latter is specified using a number that almost invariably starts with “S”, by far the most common being the “S5” wedge. I believe the “S” stands for “stopbar”, which is the corresponding accessory for the Monotype Keyboard which provides the widths so space widths can be calculated for filled lines of text.

For some unknown-till-today reason, my fingers insist on typing “S9” instead of “S5”, and I was a bit mystified where my mind was coming up with “S9”. Today I finally realized that this dates back to early microcomputer days, before Windows, DOS, or even CP/M, where binary programs were entered as lines of text. One encoding was the so-called Motorola encoding (due to the popularity of the Motorola 6800 processor chip). These lines were each started with an “S” code, with “S9” (end-of-file) being the one that stuck in my head for so long!

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