Japanese Washi Paper Supplier

Japanese Washi paper is an elegant solution to modern printing, packaging, and office needs with considerable advantages over ordinary papers.

Compared with regular paper, Washi offers more luxurious textures and greater absorbency, conducive to crisper, better-quality printing and beautiful colors. It’s also much more durable and longer-lasting.

Here at Edofiber, we take pride in our work making this paper, long a traditional Japanese handicraft, available for commercial and office use while promoting sustainability through our use of environmentally-friendly materials.

About Our Company

Edofiber and our parent company, Nagai Shigyo Co., Ltd., constitute one of the largest Washi paper distributors in Japan. We have been manufacturing and distributing Washi paper for nearly a century.

Originally founded in 1928 as Nagai Paper Company, Nagai Shigyo Co., Ltd., restructured under its current name in 1948. Originally, Nagai sold traditional, handmade Washi paper in the Japanese capital of Edo (modern Tokyo).

In 1955, Nagai invented a mechanized process that produced Washi paper with modern efficiency, while retaining the same high quality as the traditional methods.

Since then, Nagai and Edofiber have been working to bring our expertise to both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Through a consultative process, we have been consistently working to find Washi paper solutions for commercial printing and distribution. Over time, the fruits of that process have included significant expansions of our product line, which now includes a variety of types of Washi paper for digital and offset printing, packaging, stationery, and office supplies.

Washi Production: Past and Present

Traditionally, Washi was manufactured by hand. Around 610 CE, Buddhist monks from China brought Washi paper to Japan, and used it chiefly as a writing medium for their sacred sutras.

Although the techniques for making Washi have Chinese origins, Japanese paper-makers soon left their stamp on the process: they improved it by adding textile-like materials, notably the kozo mulberry and fibers from the gampi plant.

The traditional way of making Washi paper lives on in some Japanese villages today, but it is too labor-intensive to ever be economical for commercial consumption. Still, even after the rise of mass-produced paper, Washi remained demonstrably superior for artistic uses.

Solving the Challenges of Washi Production

Washi was always superior to mass-produced paper in terms of texture and durability, but it was left to Nagai Shigyo Co., Ltd. and Edofiber to solve the problem of mechanization.

We successfully transformed the age-old manual Tesuki processes of Washi manufacture into modern, mechanized form without compromising on the quality and beauty of the traditional paper.

The result is a modern, innovative product, capable of fulfilling large-volume orders all around the world.

As early as 1959, we began offering manufactured Washi paper chopstick covers. Now we have top-quality paper for digital printing, offset printing, office supplies, stationery, and packaging paper products.

Working with Washi Paper

Washi paper has important, unique qualities that make it especially well-suited to a wide variety of commercial applications.

We excel at using Washi in watermarking, edge dyeing, foil stamping, laminating, and embossing, all common artistic and design functions. We also use it in box manufacture and die stamping, or original punching.

Washi is ideal for letterpress printing, with the resulting prints comparable to the great quality of those done by woodcut plates.

It is also perfect for high-volume, commercial offset printing. And because it is so durable, Washi paper is a very good choice for thin paper printing.

What Washi brings to every single one of these uses is beauty, functionality, and possibility. The printing and design possibilities are impressive, the textures are wonderfully distinctive, and the resulting products are of higher quality and will last longer than comparable regular paper products.

Applications of Washi Paper

We are seeking business partners to distribute and use our Washi paper. It has a variety of commercial applications, due to its virtues and versatility as a paper.

Commercial offset printing on Washi paper produces crisp, high-resolution printing on paper with a luxurious texture and high durability.

Washi printing processes support high contrast, consistently high-quality text and images on a surface that has a much more impressive and tactilely-interesting texture than common, Western wood-product-based paper.

These features also recommend it for digital printing. Indeed, Washi is optimal for digital printing: it receives printed text and images with high resolution and great clarity.

Washi is also more durable and longer-lasting than ordinary paper, both because of the materials it is made from and the processes we use to create it.

We produce our Washi paper without the chemicals that are nearly ubiquitous in contemporary Western paper-making, chemicals that cause most kinds of paper to yellow over time.

Thanks to its absorbent qualities and its durability, Washi is also an excellent choice for packaging products, including boxes, tissue paper, and elegant wrapping paper. Washi packaging makes for elegant, compelling presentation of the wrapped package.

Washi also has many applications for office supplies. It is ideal for use as letter and envelope stationery, file folders, flipchart pads, document organizer portfolios, and more.

How to Find a Japanese Washi Paper Supplier

At Edofiber, we are proud to serve as one of the largest Washi distributors in the whole of Japan. We are always looking for business partners in the United Kingdom and the United States, companies willing to purchase and distribute our Washi products.

Since 1928, we have been striving to create and distribute only the best in Washi paper, and since 1955, we have created a mechanized form that is entirely harmonious with the traditional handmade craft.

Our Washi products have achieved success because they are beautiful, innovative, and highly functional. We are knowledgeable and skilled in the production and manufacture of this traditional Japanese paper in its modern, industry-defining form.

We have the ability to create customized Washi paper solutions for food service, office, and business needs. Some of our custom Washi paper products include badges, file folders, flipchart pads, portfolios, disposable chopstick sets, table mats, napkins, cups, and many more.

Whatever your needs, we are ready to consult with you in order to help you fulfill them.

Please feel free to contact us if you are looking for innovative, elegant, highly functional paper solutions. We look forward to partnering with you and to meeting your needs for Washi paper.