When I get ready to go out in the morning, I choose accessories with my clothes, hairstyle, and mood in mind. Among the options are a pair of earrings and a hair tie made with Mino washi, a traditional Japanese paper. I bought both at Kami-no-Shigoto in Mino, Gifu Prefecture.
I bought them in 2022, during a visit to Mino. The city has a historic district known as Udatsu no Agaru Machinami, whose streets retain the character of the Edo period. While walking through the area, I noticed a shop in a wooden building and went inside. It was Kami-no-Shigoto, a specialty store for interior objects and accessories made with Mino washi.
I had thought of Mino washi as a distinctly Japanese material with a long history. What I could not readily picture was how it might find a place in everyday life now.
On a shelf just inside the shop were clip-on and pierced earrings, hairpins, and other accessories made from handmade washi. Some took the form of origami cranes or paper balloons, while others featured flowers or more modern shapes.
Among them, I was drawn to a pair of rounded, modern earrings and a hair tie patterned with shikaiha, a traditional wave motif. I bought both.
On days I go to work, on days off, or when I meet friends, I choose the earrings or hair tie according to what I am wearing and how I feel.
The washi earrings felt lighter than I expected, perhaps because most of the earrings I usually wear are metal. More than the lightness, however, I noticed a sense of warmth in the paper. When I touch the surface, I can feel the slight roughness of washi. It is not unpleasant; to me, the texture is part of the material’s warmth.
As I get ready in the morning, I pick one up and picture wearing it through the day. I feel a small stir of excitement and a sense of warmth. Over time, that feeling has become part of what the warmth of washi means to me.
Kami-no-Shigoto is a specialty shop for handmade Mino washi in Aioicho, Mino. It opened in 2003 as an exhibition venue for younger papermakers, with the aim of carrying handmade washi—the core of the Mino tradition—forward.
Around 2007, it became a shop run by the papermakers themselves. Since 2012, it has been operated by Ieda Paper-Craft Inc., working with Mino’s handmade-washi artisans to develop and sell washi products. The shop describes its work as redesigning washi as interior and everyday objects, making the material more familiar while passing its appeal and techniques to a new generation.
My earrings and hair tie retain the look of washi, yet their forms and colors also feel modern. I have found both easy to wear with my everyday clothes.
Living with these Mino washi accessories has not changed my life as a whole.
What changed was how close washi felt to me.
I once saw washi as something special, closely associated with traditional Japanese culture. Now it is one of the materials I choose from according to what I am wearing and how I feel. For me, it has retained its character while becoming familiar enough to bring into everyday life.
You might take one accessory you already own and consider why you choose it. If you look beyond color and design to the impression made by its material, you may find another reason behind a familiar choice.
In the morning, as I think about my clothes and my mood, I pause over which accessory to wear. Mino washi is now among the options.