Hanji literally means “the paper of Korea”. The main material is the fibrous skin of the mulberry. Hanji is not simply paper. It is used in a variety of ways, and has a different name according to its use. If it is glued on a door it is called a window paper It is copy paper if it is used for a family registry book, Buddhist sutra or old books, while it becomes drawing paper. if four gracious plants or birds are drawn upon it.
The strong vitality of Korean paper is the reason it can be used in a multitude of ways. There is an old saying that paper lasts a thousand years and textiles (such as silk or hemp) last five hundred, reflecting the superior strength of paper over cloth. Koreans even used Korean paper as a suit of armor after varnishing the lacquer. It is known that the life span of Korean paper is 1,000 years. In the West, products made of paper more than 300∼400 years old are rare. But Korea has preserved quite a few books and drawings which are almost 1000 years old. The most typical example is the , which is the oldest printed material in the world. The year the was created was 751.
The manufacturing process of Korean paper is complicated, slow and laborious. The dry mulberry is cut after the frost has arrived and is peeled off after steaming. It is immersed in water for one day and, after being dried under the sunlight, the bark is peeled off, steamed again inside an iron pot and immersed in caustic soda. The steamed bark is smashed inside a stone mortar after the water has been squeezed out. Then it is rinsed in flowing water after being placed inside a wrapper. The washed mulberry is mixed with water and a natural adhesive. Next, the fibers are strained through a bamboo screen, which is shaken back and forth to create a crisscross pattern of fibers. The pulp is then dried by stacking it on a wooden panel and placed in the sun, completing the process. Learn more about the manufacturing procedure of traditional Korean paper through a visit to the Korean paper museum in Jeonju (www.hanjimuseum.co.kr), Jeollabuk-do.
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