Korean paper is made in the traditional way in Kang Kapseok's factory in the town of Jeonju, South Korea. (Jarrod Hall/The Epoch Times)
This ancient paper has a plethora of uses. In traditional homes, it was used like glass to cover windows and doors to keep rooms warm and to protect them from the wind. Hanji can be spun into thread like cotton and woven into fabric to make clothes.
Hanji is used in many traditional Korean art forms such as calligraphy and brush painting. It is dyed and used to make colorful lamps, fans, boxes, and even ceremonial masks. It is used to decorate all sorts of furniture and was once used to make arrow-stopping armor for soldiers. Some ancient texts over one thousand years old have been preserved with little deterioration over time because they were written on Hanji.
Upon death, many Koreans are even cremated wearing Hanji paper clothes.
The center of South Korea’s traditional Hanji production is Jeonju, a small city in the country’s south west. The city is famous for many traditional arts including Pansori, a form of folk singing and Bibimbap, a spicy Korean rice dish. Jeonju is also well known for its many traditional Korean wooden houses, called Hanok.
In a particularly old and particularly famous corner of Jeonju known as the Hanok Village, there is a Hanji factory. It’s located in a traditional wooden building with Hanji paper windows and is filled with rickety machinery and the sound of sloshing water.
The factory’s owner, Kang Kapseok, began making Hanji when he was young, after he made a visit to nearby mountains.
“I went there [the mountains] and saw the way to make Korean paper, Hanji there," he said. "It was so beautiful that I wanted to make it." He’s been in the Hanji business ever since.
The making of the Korean paper is done in several stages, according to Kapseok.
“Mulberry tree wood is the raw material from which we produce Hanji," he said. "From the beginning of December to February, we cut the mulberry trees. First, we steam the bark to get it off the wood. Then, through a boiling process, we make the wood pulp white.”
The fine wood pulp is mixed into water and poured over a bamboo screen which collects a fine layer of the soggy fibers. When the water is completely strained away, the layer of mush now resembles a wet sheet of paper. The sheets are stacked and dried. As the sheets dry, the fibers bond together with the aid of the natural starch from the tree to finally create the strong and durable paper.
Kapseok’s factory is open to visitors and is very popular. In addition, his wife runs a gift store where visitors can buy sheets of Hanji died almost any color imaginable. The shop also sells gifts, home wares, and crafts made from the paper.
But when South Korea’s economy crashed a decade ago, Hanji’s popularity decreased and never recovered.
“The number of people who write and draw on Hanji has diminished, and a similar paper is imported from other countries where labor is cheap," said Kapseok. "Korean Hanji isn’t competitive. Since the turn of the century, the government has been subsidizing the Hanji industry.”
Only 70 percent of the Hanji Kapseok’s factory makes is actually sold.
“In the early '90s, there were more than 100 employees in my factory, but less than 10 people are left.”
