Giovanni: A shop/writing den in Tokyo

Nakamichi Street in Tokyo. A quaint shop filled with Italian posters, papers, calligraphy pens...

Giovanni: Buongiorno.

Masa: Buongiorno. I'm quite interested in traditional Italian papers, especially those from Fabriano.

Giovanni: Ah, Fabriano. You have good taste. 

Masa: I've used Fabriano papers for my watercolor paintings. Nice texture.

Giovanni: Aha. An artist, you are then. Most people just come in and take a look at the posters and wander off. But I like it this way. It gives me plenty of time to work on a novel I'm writing.

Masa: A novel?

Giovanni: Set in Italy during the Renaissance.

Masa: I've always found novels to be a wonderful way to learn about other cultures and times.

Giovanni: Novels paint us into different worlds and eras. But my novel is a labor of love, and this shop serves as my writing den. It's quiet, and I can immerse myself in the world of Renaissance Italy while minding the shop.

Masa: Nice. Writing a novel set in Renaissance Italy while running a shop, great. What’s the plot of the novel?

Giovanni: It's a tale of intrigue, art, and love set in Florence during the height of the Renaissance. Character-heavy. It's my way of bringing a piece of Italy here to Tokyo.

_________

Voice-over

And the conversation ends with an exchange of names and contacts. Scribed on a slips of Fabriano paper with a quill pen.

Chopping rags for cotton paper

At the paper-making museum…

.

Water power...

Claudia: The best paper is made of 100% cotton. Rags are collected and put in vats. Water turns the wheel and the camshaft raises the hammers. Then the hammers drop beating the rags to pulp.

.

Ariana: The noise.

.

Claudia: Yes. The hammers have nails in their heads. It helps chop the rags. Amazing what they did with a wooden machine driven by water.

__________

Voice-over

Water turned the wheel. Water helped make pulp. Later, water was turned to steam to dry the paper.

Older methods of paper-making like producing archive-quality cotton-based paper contrast with ecologically sympathetic hydro-electrically mass-produced paper. Fabriano: a UNESCO Creative City.

...

Elephant as Eco-friendly Papermaker

Lunch munched...

At the elephant orphanage…

Neil: Process. First, the trees are cut down. Next, they are cut into chips at the mill. Then, the chips are mixed with water and chemicals to become pulp. After that, the pulp is spread on a wire mesh. Finally, it is heated and dried and pressed to become paper.

For scratch pad

Anil: Elephants are more eco-friendly. First, they eat leaves and branches. Next, we collect their dung and wash it to reduce it to fiber. Then, the fiber is mixed with water to become pulp. After that, the pulp is spread on a wire mesh. Finally, it is dried in the sun and pressed to become paper. No fossil fuels, no electricity, no chemicals.

________________

Voice-over
Neil’s five-step “First, Next, Then, After that, Finally” process model involves oil-using saws, trucks, and factories.

Anil’s five-step “First, Next, Then, After that, Finally” process model involves no fuel-driven machinery, only elephants and sunshine.

A sustainable Sri Lankan solution.

…