Kozo VI
Kozo, the paper mulberry. Its long fibres are what give washi its strength, its warmth and its quiet light.
The designs
Paper made from the mulberry, carried onto the wall.
Kozo began in 1988, from Tomita’s wish to introduce washi, the paper Japan is proud of, as a wallcovering, and to hand its culture, heritage and beauty on to the generations that follow. It was the first washi wallcovering collection in Japan. This is its sixth volume.
Papermaking reached Japan in the early seventh century. Two hundred years later the country had a method of its own, nagashizuki, and for 1,300 years the craft has been shaped by Japan’s climate and the wisdom of those who came before. Kozo is made in Inshu, in Tottori, where that history is still kept.
Of the fibres used for washi, kozo, the paper mulberry, is the thickest, longest and strongest, and it resists fading in sunlight. It has long covered fusuma and umbrellas, and has even been woven into cloth. It is cut each year in early winter, once its leaves have fallen, and grows again.
For this sixth volume we returned to the beginning: looking again at what washi can do, and at techniques long set aside, to find new sides to its beauty for the rooms of today.
Download the official catalogue PDF · 79 MB