Gold Leaf
Entsuke Gold Leaf (Intangible Cultural Heritage), Pack of 10 Sheets
縁付金箔（無形文化遺産）10枚入り$90 – $120In stock
Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture · Established 1898
Imai Kinpaku
More than 120 years in Kanazawa, where every sheet of Japanese gold leaf is born. We bring the craft of gold-leaf making into forms that suit life as it is lived today.
Japanese gold leaf is now made in Kanazawa alone. Imai Kinpaku, founded in 1898, is the long-established house that holds the foremost share of it. In an industry with ever fewer artisans, we have built a workshop that carries gold-leaf making through from beginning to end under one roof, and we devote ourselves to passing the skill on. We work in both enzuke gold leaf (the traditional method, whose manufacture is inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage) and the contemporary tachikiri gold leaf, and from craft objects to edible leaf, we carry the appeal of gold into present-day life.
- 01Location01
- Kanazawa, Japan
Japanese gold leaf is now made in Kanazawa alone. Imai Kinpaku, founded in 1898, is the long-established house that holds the foremost share of it. In an industry with ever fewer artisans, we have built a workshop that carries gold-leaf making through from beginning to end under one roof, and we devote ourselves to passing the skill on. We work in both enzuke gold leaf (the traditional method, whose manufacture is inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage) and the contemporary tachikiri gold leaf, and from craft objects to edible leaf, we carry the appeal of gold into present-day life.
- 01Location01
- Kanazawa, Japan
02 — Letter
Carrying gold leaf into the future.
Gold leaf is metal beaten out to a thinness of roughly one ten-thousandth of a millimetre. Held up to the light, it lets the far side show through; rubbed between the fingers, it disappears altogether — it is that delicate. Such sheets we have gone on making in Kanazawa since 1898, the thirty-first year of Meiji.
Beat on without pause and the temperature within the beating papers rises, and the leaf clings to the paper. Each time, the papers are separated so the heat may subside; once cool, the beating begins again. Through this repetition, the gold grows thinner by degrees.
Gold leaf is difficult to handle, and we should like it to be enjoyed more freely. It is from that wish that we continue to develop foods, cosmetics and craft objects, and to offer gold-leaf application workshops. Using gold and silver over and over, and giving spent beating papers a second life as oil-blotting papers, we likewise keep as part of gold-leaf making.
今井
Proprietor, Imai Kinpaku Main Shop今井金箔本店 店主Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture
03 — How gold leaf comes to be
From bullion to one ten-thousandth of a millimetre.
Gold-leaf making divides into the sumi stage, in which uwazumi — an intermediate leaf — is worked up from the bullion, and the haku stage, in which that uwazumi is finished into gold leaf. The haku stage comprises two methods, the traditional enzuke and the modern tachikiri, and Imai Kinpaku practises both.
The sumi stage: making uwazumi
上澄をつくる澄工程Gold is combined with trace amounts of silver and copper and melted at roughly 1,300 degrees to form an alloy. The proportions of silver and copper determine the hue of the finished leaf. The alloy is drawn out between rollers to about 1/20 mm, then beaten thinner still on the sumi-uchi machine until it becomes uwazumi, some 1/1,000 mm thick. The paper it is beaten between is a special stock made from rice straw and paper mulberry, prepared over the course of about a week.
The Traditional Method: Entsuke Gold Leaf
伝統の製法、縁付金箔This is the traditional method of Kanazawa leaf, with a history of more than four hundred years. Because the leaf is beaten between papers prepared from hand-formed washi (Japanese paper made sheet by sheet), it takes on a quiet character that carries the very expression of the paper. The beating papers are made by steeping hand-formed sheets of ganpi fibre and clay in a liquid containing persimmon tannin and egg, then beating them to close the fibre — a cycle repeated for some six months. The making of entsuke gold leaf, the leaf beaten between such papers, was designated a Selected Conservation Technique by the state in 2014, and in December 2020 it was inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage as one of the "Traditional Skills, Techniques and Knowledge for the Conservation and Transmission of Wooden Architecture."
The Modern Method: Tachikiri Gold Leaf
現代の製法、断切金箔This method was developed around the 1960s to meet a sharp rise in demand for gold leaf. Because machine-made glassine is used for the beating papers, the quality is consistent; the process is simpler than that of entsuke leaf and lends itself to efficient production in quantity. Leaf beaten out to about one ten-thousandth of a millimetre is stacked some thousand sheets deep and trimmed to the prescribed size with a thin blade. Today the mainstream of gold leaf is this tachikiri leaf, cut rather than edged.
04 — The Gold Leaf of Imai Kinpaku
Gold Leaf, Brought into Daily Life
From the thinness and colour of the leaf to what becomes of it once its work is done, we continue a way of making that holds the material dear. That leaf reaches the life of today as craft objects and as material for gilding.
Gold Leaf as a Material
金箔という素材Gold leaf is about one ten-thousandth of a millimetre thick. Held up to the light, it lets the far side show faintly through, appearing blue. It is an alloy of gold with small amounts of silver and copper, and its colour shifts with those proportions. It does not tarnish, and holds its lustre indefinitely. The standard size is 109 mm square — three sun six bu in the old measure.
Making That Comes Full Circle
循環するものづくりGold and silver that do not become leaf are turned into trimmings and powder. What remains at the last as imperfect, along with the surplus gathered after use, is refined back into bullion and used once more as material for leaf. The beating papers, their work of drawing out the leaf complete, are reborn as blotting papers for the skin. We also make materials for kintsugi, the mending of broken vessels with lacquer and gold, and bring forth wares made from offcuts.
Gold Leaf, Brought into Daily Life
金箔を、暮らしの中へGold leaf is so thin that it is difficult to handle; we wanted anyone to be able to use it with ease. From that wish came our work in crafting objects and in supplying leaf materials. At our main shop in Kanazawa, the tools used in making gold leaf are on display, and visitors may also try applying the leaf themselves. Should you find yourself in Kanazawa, we invite you to stop by.
05 — Timeline
More than 120 years in Kanazawa.
1898
Gold leaf manufacture founded in the city of Kanazawa
Imai Kozaburo began making gold leaf in Hyakushō-chō, Kanazawa (present-day Saiwai-chō).
1962
Incorporated as Imai Kozaburo Shoten Co., Ltd.
What had been a private trade became a company.
1976
Imai Kinpaku Co., Ltd. established
The manufacturing and sales divisions were strengthened.
1992
A new company building raised, and the main shop opened
With the completion of the new building, we opened our shop.
2001
First in the gold leaf industry to obtain ISO 9000 certification
Placing the customer first, the whole company put a system of quality management in order.
2006
A shop opened in Hirosaka to carry word of Kanazawa gold leaf
In Hirosaka we opened a shop devoted to conveying the beauty of Kanazawa gold leaf.
06 — VisitView in Google Maps ↗
Visit the workshop.
Address
Imai Kinpaku Main Store 7-3 Saiwaimachi Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-0968
今井金箔 本店 〒920-0968 石川県金沢市幸町7-3
Opening hours
Sun–MonClosed
Tue–Sat10:00–17:00