Echizen is one of Japan's oldest papermaking regions.

31 sheets of handmade kozo were couched into a shito, their linen dividing threads extended and suspended from above. A selective application of gold leaf conceals and accentuates imperfections in the paper, evoking the reparative logic of kintsugi. The work was installed at Imadate Art Field in a former miso factory that had been repurposed as a community arts space.

This installation was conceived while studying traditional nagashizuki and nagashikomi sheetforming techiques in traditional Japanese paper mills, as part of an exchange between the Echizen Washi Village and the University of Iowa Center for the Book. The resulting work explores themes of repetition, rhythm, and imperfection through tanka, an ancient form of Japanese poetry consisting of 31 syllables.