When, where, and how does washi come into being?

This project began as a research inquiry into the fundamental structure of washi. To explore its origins, I visited Nao Tesuki Washi, the only remaining washi workshop in Saga Prefecture, Japan, where papermaking has continued for more than 300 years since the Edo period. Together with seventh-generation papermaker Gen Taniguchi, I spent nearly two years conducting research. Through physically engaging in every stage of the process—from harvesting kozo (paper mulberry), preparing and loosening the fibers, to sheet formation and papermaking—I became particularly interested in washi’s distinctive long-fiber structure.

Rather than viewing washi as a flat material, I came to understand it as a primitive structure: an aggregation of countless intertwined fibers. This led me to wonder whether unseen landscapes might exist within its interior. To investigate this possibility, I combined washi with dye and, in collaboration with dye artist Kurara Omichi, studied the movement of dye through the material.

Capillary Drift connects the distinct technical domains of washi and dyeing. Through capillary action, dye drifts through the internal structure of washi, revealing pathways shaped by the material itself. Moving, bleeding, and accumulating between the fibers, color emerges through a continuous interplay between control and chance, guided by the structure of the material rather than by predetermined design.

Rather than designing a fixed outcome, this project embraces phenomena that emerge at the boundary between control and non-control. By incorporating these phenomena into the design process, Capillary Drift expands the expressive and material possibilities of washi while materializing the relationship between material and phenomenon as a product.

Capillary Drift explores new forms of expression that arise at the intersection of Control and Uncontrol.