The truly special and unique part of the Kunisawa line is the amazingly smooth paper. All of Kunisawa’s books use “foolscap” paper, which has a very interesting history. As told by our friends at Kunisawa:
“Britain’s foolscap paper is relatively well known, having even made an appearance in the English novelist Arthur Conan Doyle’s 19th Century Sherlock Holmes series, which is said to be the origin of the phrase. The “foolscap” name is said to come from the jester’s hat that was originally used as the watermark for the paper.
First imported to Japan from Britain in the Meiji era (1868-1912), the paper was perfect for note-taking due to the smooth writing feel and excellent ink absorption it provided for fountain pens.
The first Japanese foolscap paper was born under the name “OK Foolscap Paper” as a response to the demand for paper with such qualities to be produced domestically.
As Japan’s only paper dedicated to executive-grade note taking, it is used locally for high-class, watermarked notebooks, letter sets, and other materials.”
