抄録
On the presumption that minorities in Southern China and her peripheral countries still conserve ancient papermaking techniques, field and literature surveys were made for extraction of elemental techniques of hand papermaking and arranging them in the developing order from viewpoints of paper science. These techniques are classified into two methods, molding and squeezing of pulp (or plant fibers) suspension. In this report developing steps of molding method were observed and discussed. The author propose that the most primitive technique is to disperse a viscous solution dispersed with plant fibers on horizontally supported dry canvas as observed in Yao tribes. The next step is floating mold in which water pools are provided in several ways. Finally floating mold using a shallow vat with legs made it possible to make paper by a standing figure. Further the sallow vat is improved to provide bamboo bars at the edge for putting frames containing wet sheets.
