Onao

Onao works from Ichikawa Daimon, a district of Yamanashi Prefecture with roughly a thousand years of washi papermaking history, tracing its own operation back to around 1960, when the district's hand-papermaking shifted toward mechanized production, before incorporating as its present company in 1974. Alongside its traditional line — shoji paper for sliding doors, celebration papers for seasonal use, writing papers and stationery — the company keeps a research arm developing new paper materials, including Naoron, a tear-resistant, water-resistant washi that stays soft and pliable and gains texture when crumpled. In 2008, Onao paired that material development with design, launching SIWA (紙和) with industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa: bags, wallets and everyday objects built from Naoron rather than conventional paper stock, aimed at broadening what a "paper product" can be beyond stationery and interior fittings. The company also collaborates on regional paper projects with makers in Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan and the Philippines, extending its materials research outward rather than keeping washi development confined to Japan. On site, Onao keeps an all-paper tea room, Jokuan, at its Yamanashi headquarters — a working demonstration, inside the company's own building, of how far its core material can be pushed.