Windows of the drying room at a Japanese paper studio. To make Izumo folk-craft paper, the pressed paper is affixed to kiln-heated iron plates to dry. Near the window stands a brick kiln, on top of which is a bent iron sheet where the paper is hung to dry after pressing. The heat, steam, and smoke generated there are expelled through wooden lattice shutters adorned with Japanese paper.
Izumo Mingeishi Studio, drying room
(Izumo Folk-Craft Paper / Yakumocho, Matsue, Shimane Prefecture)
This article is an excerpt from “Window Workology,” a joint research project concerning windows and the behaviors around them done in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technologyʼs Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory.