Conversations from Kochi: Chikako Uitenboogaart (Washi Stuido Kamikoya)

The only way to Washi Studio Kamikoya, located in Yusuhara in northwestern Kochi, is through the mountains. Towering trees that stand like straight-backed soldiers line the narrow and twisting road. Sunlight filters through the leaves and boughs, dappling the road in front of us as we head ever deeper into the mountains. There are no houses in sight—in fact, there haven’t been for a while. When we finally reach our destination and step out of the car, we’re met with a breathtaking bird’s eye view of the entire mountain valley that looks like something out of a Ghibli film. Verdant, sweeping, and vast, in the distance, the valley is dotted with a few old Japanese homes.

Washi Studio Kamikoya is a workshop and exclusive lodging facility in one, offering guests the opportunity to make traditional Japanese paper (washi) by hand, and experience, by extension, the rich nature all around. With room enough for only one group of visitors at a time, it’s easy to see why the comfortable, wooden home draws so many.

We are greeted by Chikako Uitenboogaart (71). Settling across from one another in a room that is home to a kitchen, administrative desk, and beautiful works of washi art, it’s cozy in the afternoon sun. A group of visitors from Australia in their 60s are around back in the outdoor workshop, listening intently to Chikako’s son, Yohei, as he instructs them on how to make washi. After the pandemic, international guest numbers soared, making up roughly 70-80% of their customers.

Chikako’s husband, Rogier, was born in the Hague in the Netherlands, and is a paper master authorized by Kochi Prefecture. Traveling to Japan in 1980, he visited various paper makers and began his washi training in 1981. For more than four decades, he has devoted himself to the art.

When I ask Chikako how they met—a question she has no doubt answered hundreds of times—she laughs, “Oh, we don’t have to talk about that.” Preferring to let nature and the space speak for her, Chikako is as warm and radiant as the light that gently filters through the washi paper covering light fixtures and half of the windows in the room. Born in Shimane Prefecture, but mostly raised in the cityscape of Osaka, she has now lived in Kochi for 40 years.

The first ten were spent in Ino, a town known for Tosa Washi, a kind of Japanese paper made specifically in Kochi. “It was near a big city, but we wanted to live in the mountains, so we started looking for places. While we were looking for available houses, we found this one. The Shikoku Karst (geological formation caused by the erosion of limestone hillsides) is right nearby, almost protecting the house, and the whole family fell in love with the location. It gets great sunlight, and the water is from the source of the Shimanto River.”

I ask her if she has been fond of nature all her life, to which she replies that it must be in her DNA, being born in Shimane, another prefecture known for its natural beauty. When asked about her favorite part of living surrounded by nature, she pauses and thinks for a moment before concluding, “It’s too hard to choose! The stars at night, the sunsets, the early morning fog, they’re all beautiful. The scenery is incredible all day long.”

It’s the beauty of the natural environment around her that drives Kamikoya’s sustainability efforts as well. “Living here in this place of natural beauty, you want to protect it and take care of it. We also run a lodge for visitors and strive to use organic products as much as possible. No synthetic detergents or soaps here. Making washi itself is sustainability in action: we grow the raw materials right here, use what we need, and then they grow back the next year. There are no chemical elements in it whatsoever. Even goats can eat it safely!” She laughs before explaining that when they kept goats, they would often end up eating the bark from the paper mulberry tree (used as an ingredient in the paper) rather than the vegetables in their garden. “Goats,” she says, chuckling, “are washi’s natural predator.”

Washi Studio Kamikoya is involved in every step of the washi making process and their products tell a story. “I see the whole process from growing the raw materials to the finished product. When it becomes paper and the light shines through it, you can see the fibers,” she says, gesturing to the washi-covered window. “Those are the fibers we harvested. I think that’s pretty special. When I look at this paper, I see our farmland. I see the trees that the fibers came from. I remember us all working together to harvest them. That gives me a lot of pride as a paper making workshop. Even if someone has never seen traditional washi before, I know that they feel something when they look at it that they wouldn’t get from regular printer paper.”

Guests at their paper making workshop each make one piece of A4-sized paper decorated with seasonal flowers and plants picked from the surrounding area. “We’ve had hundreds of guests come through and every time, they make something new and unique. I’ve never seen anyone make the same design as someone else. They use the same raw materials, the same tools, for the same amount of time, and yet, it’s always something new.” The paper made during the 90-minute workshop is then dried for five days or so before being mailed back to the visitor to keep. “They really make the most beautiful art,” she says, eyes twinkling, “I’ve seen hundreds of works and I never get tired of it. Each one is precious.” She encourages visitors to display their works with a light source behind it so they too can experience the warmth and depth of washi in their home.

Before the end of the interview, the Australian visitors, finished with their workshop, come through the room. A woman stops to speak to Chikako in English, saying she must be so proud of her son, to which she replies, emphatically, “Yes! Of course!” A gentleman mentions to her how much fun he had, and she beams a warm smile. The washi lampshades in the room glow golden as the afternoon light starts to dim. The simple combination of natural materials and light is something I felt on the way here, watching the sunlight filter through the trees on the twisting mountain road, and now, here again, in the honey-colored lamplight. Here at Washi Studio Kamikoya, the paper speaks for itself, bringing nature in one of its purest forms into homes across the world.

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Washi Studio Kamikoya
Address: 1678 Otado, Yusuhara-cho, Takaoka-gun, Kochi
Best season: Spring and fall
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