The history of paper
Pre-paper era
Before the invention of paper, various items were used to record pictures and letters. People used tortoise shells, stones, clay tablets, palm leaves, sheep skin, wood and silk, but the most paper-like material they had was papyrus. 3000 B.C., papyrus was used in Egypt.
Papyrus is made by arranging fine strips cut from the stems of papyrus plants vertically and horizontally on top of each other into a sheet. As the origin of the English word “paper”, papyrus became the etymology of the word for “paper” in all European languages.
However, although Papyrus is a writing material, it is not “paper”. Paper is made by “slapping fibers such as cellulose pulp and other fibers underwater, ripping them to pieces, scooping them out, and then pressing them together to a thin, flat sheet.” In other words, because paper is made out of closely intertwined fibers and papyrus was not produced through the same process of spreading thin, wet pulp and letting it dry, you can’t call it paper.
The invention of paper
The manufacturing method of what we nowadays call paper is said to have been established by Cai Lun of China in 105 A.D. It was called the "paper of Marquis Cai”, and became the first functional writing material. It is said that its ingredients of that time included bark, rags, hemp fibers, and fishing nets. It is what is called “non-wood paper” nowadays.
There was a theory that stated that “Hakyo paper,” which was made over 200 year before the “paper of Marquis Cai” was made in Han Dynasty, was the oldest form of paper, but scholars have reached the conclusion that the Hakyo paper was not made out of fibers. It is believed that the Hakyo paper was not used for writing, but as a wrapping paper to wrap valuable things, etc.
Japanese paper
Paper manufacturing technology was introduced to Japan in the year 610 by the Korean priest Damjing of the Goguryeo Kingdom. However, there is also a theory that claims that it had been introduced much earlier.
Because the raw material for Japanese paper was paper mulberry and not hemp, the Japanese were able to create their unique “Japanese paper”. The oldest Japanese paper was manufactured in the year 702, and is currently kept at Shosoin in Nara Prefecture. It is believed that the reason Japanese paper has reached such a high standard is because paper was actually introduced as a material to copy Sutra.
It was during the Nara period that Japanese paper began to be called “Kami”. It is said that its etymology comes from a narrow, long, and thin pieces of wood (kan or kanu) that was used as writing material before paper was invented. Another theory states that its origin can be found in the word for another writing material, the bark, “kawa,” of the paper mulberry, which underwent a phonological change. However, the exact etymology is not known.
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