Timeless paper artisans
Siwa is one of the brands belonging to Onao, a family-run company from Yamanashi. Despite being established in 1974, the actual founding year of the business is unknown: the family started crafting Japanese paper over a hundred years ago, and way before laws on incorporation were introduced.
Versatile craftspeople
Besides crafting Japanese paper for printing and for use in sliding doors, Onao also owns a number of collections of products made using their paper, including 4 different brands of fashion accessories and decor items. Their paper is also used by several companies to manufacture a great number of different products.
Onao is the patent owner of a reinforced type of Japanese paper called Naoron®, which includes Soft Naron® and Hard Naoron®.
Both types of naoron are made from a mixture of wood pulp and polyolefin fibers (Soft Naoron) or entirely from polyester fibers (Hard Naoron), 60% of which is obtained from recycled bottles. The product obtained is then turned into Naoron using the Japanese traditional paper manufacturing technique called washi-suki.
Thanks to the augmented strength of Naoron, Siwa now produces bags (such as the clutch bag and the overnight bag you find on KiGinKin) and slippers, as well as other products for interior design, which KiGinKin will feature in the future.