I observed how the entire family was involved in the manufacturing process. Grandmother sat on the veranda, removing with a small knife the bark from kouzo branches, behind her a big wood-fired boiler used for cooking the kouzo in water with natural ashes to separate the plant fibres. Inside the workshop, the paper was ‘lifted’ from a sink containing pulp using fine bamboo moulds, pressed for some days, then dried on a warm iron plate. Near the entrance was a fish tank with red carp, and I jokingly asked if they were the workshop mascots. “No, they’re not pets,” answered Hasegawa-san, “they’re here to prove that the water coming out of this workshop is absolutely clean before it enters the river. -Maribel Mas