paper*related finds in tokyo

Paper is an art here in Japan. Making it, using it, and presenting it/giving it. I had a wonderful opportunity to visit the showroom for Takeo Paper, a leading paper distributor in Japan. I thumbed through their collection of 1000s of paper types and was so impressed by their good taste, color selection {again, good taste} and variety. The 2nd floor of the showroom has an exhibit called "Self Money Design". 9 design teams were asked to design their idea/concept of money - and Takeo Paper produced prototypes to made them come to life. There was 1 design team who made coins square and bills with rounded corners - that when stacked created a nice pattern - as they did not feel it was important to have coins be round and bills be rectangular anymore. There was another design team that created currency of flower petals: 1 petal = 1 "dollar". And when you combined 10 petals, it would be a 10 "dollar" flower form. Hard to explain but beautiful to see {unfortunately, photos were not permitted on site!} Above photos are of the showroom and their papers organized by color.

I also got to visit a paper store called Papier Labo in Sendagaya {Harajuku JR Station}. They are a little shop that sells anything paper {cards, envelopes, notebooks} and also takes custom letterpress orders. This was the first time I saw metal type for Japanese characters - seems obvious but I just never thought of it. Anyways, I loved their shop presentation and selection of items - as seen photographed below - and walked out of the store with some new items~