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When Japanese paper is made using mulberry as a raw material, it becomes handmade Japanese paper with strong yet light and supple paper quality. It is widely used in Japanese painting, from painting materials such as supportives, backing paper and woodblock prints, to shoji paper, sutra copying paper, front fittings, and lighting. Mulberry paper with characteristics suitable for each is made by various manufacturing methods in each region.

The mulberry, which is the raw material of mulberry paper, is relatively easy to grow in deciduous shrub of the mulberry family, and uses the tough skin fiber (fiber around the stem) of branches that grow from the stump every year. The fiber of the mulberry is about 10 to 15 mm, which is thicker and longer than the raw material fibers such as Ganpo and Mitsumata used in other Japanese paper, and the fibers are well entangled, so the resulting paper is hard to break. It is very strong. As a production area of mulberry, Nasu mulberry in Tochigi and Tosa mulberry in Kochi are famous and are said to have good quality, but in recent years many foreign mulberry has also been imported.

Mitsumata is a deciduous shrub that drops leaves in winter, and is said to be the origin of the Himalaya region in central and southern China. From March to April, yellow flowers bloom at the tip of the branch divided into three-pronged branches. The bark of one-year branches is used as a raw material for Japanese paper and banknotes.

Mitsumata was named "Mitsumata" because it has a characteristic divided into three.

It is distributed in China, Himalayas, and Southeast Asia, and is planted as garden trees by human hands, but most are cultivated as raw materials for Japanese paper and banknotes. It is a deciduous broad-leaved shrub with a height of 1 to 3 meters. The trunk is characterized by a standing shape, the branches are always divided into three-shakes, and the bark is grayish brown and smooth. Around July, the shoots are divided into three branches and branches begin to grow.

In the flowering season, before the leaves come out, the yellow head flowers collected in a spherical shape are attached to the tip of the branch to bloom downward and emit a sweet aroma. The flower has no petals, has a cylindrical calyx with four tip splits, white fine hair grows densely on the outside, and the inside is yellow. The final period is July. Winter buds are bare buds for both leaf buds and flower buds, and white hair grows densely. (I found a yellow uncomfortable thing around March, but I didn't think this was a "flower.")

From ancient times to the present day, it is a typical Japanese paper made from mulberry. In ancient times, the paper and the paper are also known as Kaji paper (Kaji paper, Kaji paper) in modern times. The raw material, Kozo, is a deciduous shrub belonging to the mulberry family, grows naturally in Japan and is abundant. In ancient times, it was used for textiles such as Tafu and Kamoe (Tae).