Echizen Washi Village

Echizen has made paper for around fifteen hundred years by tradition, and the district is unusual in having a shrine dedicated specifically to the craft: Okamoto Otaki Jinja enshrines Kawakami Gozen, a goddess who is said to have appeared to the villagers and taught them to make paper from the river water, and it is the only shrine to a paper deity in Japan. Its main hall of 1843 is elaborately carved and worth seeing on its own. The village is a working district of about seventy workshops, and three visitor sites sit together: the Paper and Culture Museum, the Udatsu Paper and Craft Museum in a relocated old workshop where papermakers work traditionally, and a hands-on centre where you make sheets yourself. Echizen paper goes into conservation work, currency-grade stock and artists' materials; large single sheets for painting are a speciality.

What you actually see

• A shrine to paper - the only one in Japan, with an elaborately carved 1843 hall.
• Working papermakers - traditional making demonstrated in a relocated old workshop.
• Hands-on sheets - a centre where visitors make their own paper.
• Large single sheets - a local speciality supplying artists and conservators.

When to go

All year. Half a day. Book hands-on sessions ahead in busy periods.

Honest expectations

The village is a working district and most of the seventy workshops are not open to visitors. Buses from Takefu are infrequent. Explanation is largely in Japanese. Hands-on sessions are short and the results need drying time.

Nearby

Eiheiji is north-east; Tojinbo is north on the coast.