Korea 2008 - Jeonju

Jeonju Korea Paper Institute

The name for this location is far more pretentious than the relaxed location of the factory itself. It is located down an alleyway in the Hanok Village of Jeonju. Once through the gate and around the corner of a building, you enter a courtyard. The actual paper making building is on your right with the shop straight ahead. The shop is full of almost every color imaginable, as well as other objects that are created with handmade paper - fans, dolls, cards, etc. Also, many of the Hanok village homes use larger sheets of handmade paper to paper the walls and ceilings. This was true in the room where I stayed.

Inside the "factory," the lone paper maker was busy. It takes about one week from cutting down the mulberry tree until a sheet of paper is completed. The first step is to cut down the tak, or mulberry tree. Then the tree is taken to a small factory like the one shown here. The pulp is removed from the tree's core after the bark is removed. The pulp is boiled, dyed, and then put into a processing tub to complete the breakdown of the fibrous pulp. Put into a new tub with clear water the mess is either scooped up on a thin bamboo strainer or, as the images demonstrate in my gallery, flooded onto a bamboo screen and then strained of excess water.

The images in the gallery show the master papermaker filling his screen with sludge, pealing back the wet mess on a bamboo screen which helps to form the size of the sheet of paper, and the screen acts as an armature to move the new sheet to the next stage. He carefully aligns the sheet with those already on the pile, and then peals back the bamboo screen leaving the thin sheet of wet newly made paper on the pile. After each sheet he takes a thin blue plastic string and lays it near the edge of each sheet. This strings becomes important when separating the sheets later in the process. After he's done making a pile, which can be seen in the images, the sheets of paper are put into a press until much of the water drains away. After the pressing process the paper is moved to the final stage, the final drying process. The woman working in this small factory takes a sheet of paper, still damp, and lays it on a heated table. Then she brushes it flat so that the heat will steam any remaining moisture from the sheet of paper. When done, only about enough time for her to peal one sheet off and put a replacement sheet down, she takes the completed sheet and puts it on a pile with the others for cutting or for sale as it is. The work is repetitive, and the quality is excellent.

I grew up in a paper town in Maine, and recall the huge paper machine humming away producing finely coated paper for magazines like the National Geographic and later for Oprah's magazine. The importance of this craftsman's work and  keeping his skill alive, like any handmade process, is of incredible value in the post-industrial world.

Korea Sites & Return to Homepage Korea Homepage Korea Snapshot 08 Trip Beopju-sa Temple 09 Bulguk-sa Temple 08 Goseong Dinosaurs 08 Gyeongju 08 Haeinsa Temple 08 Jeonju Sites 08 Jeonju Hanok Village 08 Jeonju Paper Factory 08 Jeonju Street Scenes 08 Jinju Fortress 08 Jinju Markets 08 & 09 Nagan Village - Walled Town 08 Ssanggyesa Temple 09