Making Japanese paper(Washi)-2: "Paper making" and "Environmental chemistry analysis"(2/3)
Kouzo(The most popular materials of Washi)
I studied environmental chemistry analysis at the Department of Urban Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Sanitary Engineering (currently called the Environmental Science Course ...). In particular, I worked on the chemical analysis of "water".
The job is to check the concentration of various impurities contained in water (PPM, PPB, PPT, etc.), and in a sense, it is unique that it does not check "water" itself.
There are various tools for examining these impurities, but the basic operation is "titration", which examines impurities by coloring them. For trihalomethanes and dioxins, gas chromatographs (GS), and for heavy metals, atomic absorption (genshikyukou). May also be used. (There will be more advanced equipment now.)
These experiments require step-by-step pretreatment of the sample. If you do not follow the procedure, no data will be output.
By the way, when I abandoned the above world (including environmental chemistry analysis) and lived in the mountains, I noticed that there were mulberry trees （kouzo:楮)in the mountains, and I thought I should do it. Then, as I learned this technology, I felt that it was very similar to environmental chemistry analysis, and I thought, "I am a resident of environmental chemistry analysis."
The fact that proper paper cannot be produced without proper procedures is exactly the same as environmental chemistry analysis.
Of course, my "skills as a papermaker is not as good as a regular papermaker, but I think I can be a spokesperson for them. Currently, Houses doing papermaking all over Japan. Is it less than 50 houses?
A word of the day: I once asked a visiting professor of sanitary engineering if I could make papermaking compulsory, but he refused without any notice. Well, I've been convinced that they haven't made any academic progress in 20 years because of this level.