minogami 美濃紙

Also read minoshi. Lit. "mino paper." A generic term for handmade paper *washi 和紙 produced in Mino 美濃 (Gifu prefecture), one of the most important paper-making regions in Japan. The oldest paper surviving in Japan dates back to year 702. The Shōsōin monjo 正倉院文書 (Shōsōin Records) refer to three paper making regions: Chikuzen 筑前 (Fukuoka prefecture); Buzen 豊前 (Ōita prefecture); and Mino. Of these three mino paper was considered to be the highest quality, since it is made from pure mulberry fibres which bind uniformly to create a surface free of blotches and irregularities. Production of minogami was originally believed to be concentrated in the Ibi 揖斐 river basen. By the 13th century the paper-making techniques had advanced to the extent that almost all types of washi were prduced in Mino. Among the best known are the thick *morishitagami 森下紙, the very fine *tengujō 典具帖, *hōshogami 奉書紙, *uchigumori 内曇, shōjigami 障子紙, usugami 薄紙, usushiro 薄白, and nokaore 中折. During the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, paper-making dominated the economy of the Mino area and a very large paper-making town Ōyada 大矢田 (now Mino City) developed. In the Edo period the most important, representative type of minogami was naogami 直紙, also read jikishi, used for sliding doors *akarishōji 明障子. Shōjigami needs to be translucent, with a well ordered, faultless alignment of paper fibres. To achieve this, the paper pulp in the frame was shaken not only vertically, as is usual, but also from left to right yokoyuri 横揺り, a special feature of the Mino technique. Some Edo period sources also name shoinshi 書院紙 as a very famous mino paper used for *shōji 障子. The term shoinshi was even used on occasion to refer to minogami. In 1969 a group was set up to preserve traditional paper making in Mino, and the so-called original minogami or honminogami 本美濃紙, was declared an important intangible cultural asset. Minogami occasionally refers to one specific type of paper produced in the Mino region, as opposed to being a generic term.
In *ukiyo-e 浮世絵, minogami was used for prints before 1760's, before the development of full-color printing *nishiki-e 錦絵. Minogami is generally cut approximately 33 x 46 cm, and the major print formats *hangata 判型 cut from it are: *ōōban 大々判, *ōban 大判, and *hosoban 細判. In addition, a thin but strong minogami, which has been valued as a backing paper for book-binding, was often used for a master drawing by artists and for trial prints of full-color prints.