Keijusha Etchu Yatsuo Washi Katazome Card Case: Where to Buy [2026]

The Keijusha (桂樹舎) card case is a business-card holder — a meishi-ire (名刺入れ, “name-card case”) — made not from leather or metal but from stencil-dyed handmade paper. The paper is Etchū Yatsuo washi (越中八尾和紙), produced in the Yatsuo district of Toyama City on the Sea of Japan coast. Keijusha is the workshop that, more than any other, carries patterned Yatsuo washi into modern everyday goods, and it sits squarely in the lineage of two of the twentieth century’s most important Japanese craft figures: Yanagi Sōetsu, who founded the mingei folk-craft movement, and Serizawa Keisuke, the stencil-dyeing master.

What makes this object worth an international reader’s attention is the combination it represents. Yatsuo washi was historically the wrapping paper for Toyama’s famous traveling medicine peddlers, so it was bred for durability and daily handling rather than for display. Keijusha’s founder, Yoshida Keisuke, studied that workhorse paper through the lens of mingei aesthetics and Serizawa’s katazome (型染め, “stencil dyeing”), and the result is paper goods that are tactile, patterned, and built to be carried — card cases, coin purses, book covers, and tissue boxes among them.

This guide is written for readers deciding whether a washi card case fits how they actually use one, and for those weighing it against the other Japanese paper and craft goods we have covered. We cover what the object is, where it comes from, who it suits, who should skip it, and the realistic paths to buying it from outside Japan. One caveat up front: at the time of writing, no live Amazon listing snapshot was retrievable for this specific item, so we do not quote a price — verify the current price and stock at the retailer before purchasing.

📅 Published: June 1, 2026  ·  🔄 Updated: June 1, 2026  ·  ⏱️ Read time: ~9 min

Who this is for — and who should skip it

Product overview (from published specs)

The dataset for this item is thin. No current Amazon US or Amazon JP listing snapshot was retrievable at the time of writing, so the table below states what is known from the craft category and Keijusha’s product line rather than from a live spec sheet. Treat material and construction as characteristic of the maker’s washi card cases; verify exact dimensions and the current pattern on the live listing.

📍 Where this comes from — place, era, and the craft tradition

Toyama Toyama · Chūbu

Toyama Prefecture occupies a deep bay on the Sea of Japan, ringed on three sides by mountains — the Tateyama range to the east and the Hida highlands to the south. Yatsuo lies on that southern edge, where the Jōganji and Ida river systems carry clean, cold mountain water down toward the plain. Clean running water and cold winters are exactly the conditions paper-making wants: cold water keeps the fibers crisp and slows bacterial growth during the long soaking and beating steps, and the hill country supplied the kōzo mulberry. Yatsuo grew as a market town where mountain and plain met, and paper became one of its defining trades.

The historical engine behind Yatsuo washi, though, was not paper for its own sake — it was medicine.

Toyama’s traveling medicine sellers, the baiyaku (売薬), built one of Edo Japan’s most remarkable distribution networks. Under the patronage of the Maeda lords, peddlers fanned out across the country carrying boxes of household remedies, leaving the medicine with families and collecting payment only for what had been used on the next visit — a “use first, pay later” system that depended on reliable paper to wrap each dose. That demand bred a paper that was tough, foldable, and made by the thousand: a working material, not a luxury one. Yatsuo washi’s everyday-product character comes directly from this.

Etchū washi is today a nationally designated traditional craft that spans three Toyama districts: Yatsuo in Toyama City, Taira/Gokayama in Nanto, and Bikadani in Asahi. Each carried a slightly different role. Gokayama paper, deep in the steep-roofed mountain villages later inscribed by UNESCO, served the Kaga Maeda domain as official paper — used for han-satsu domain currency and for wrapping koban gold coins, which demanded a paper of consistent quality and resistance to wear. Yatsuo, by contrast, was the paper of commerce and the road.

Keijusha is the modern face of patterned Yatsuo washi. Its founder, Yoshida Keisuke, studied under the orbit of Yanagi Sōetsu’s mingei movement and learned the katazome stencil dyeing associated with Serizawa Keisuke — the same technique Serizawa used on his celebrated calendars and book covers. Rather than treating washi as a flat surface for art, Keijusha makes it into objects to be carried: card cases, coin purses, book covers, and tissue boxes. The continuity case here is not centuries of an unbroken single family line but something subtler — a craft material with deep regional roots, redirected in the twentieth century into design objects that keep the paper in daily hands.

“The paper that once wrapped a peddler’s medicine now wraps a stranger’s business card — the same tough, foldable Yatsuo washi, asked to do the same quiet job of protecting something small and important.”

📌 How does it compare?

Related guides on jpmono.com — other Toyama crafts, washi paper, and dyeing traditions worth weighing alongside this card case:

Takaoka Raden Lacquer Box (Toyama)Same prefecture — shell-inlay lacquerware
Nousaku Tin Tumbler (Toyama)Takaoka metalcasting from the same region
Echizen Washi GoshuinchoWashi paper goods — different origin
Awa Awagami Fine Art PaperTokushima washi for art & print
Sekishu Washi Scroll PaperShimane UNESCO washi
Gifu Chochin Mino Washi LanternMino washi in a lantern form
Ise-Katagami Dyeing StencilThe stencil craft behind katazome
Kanazawa Gold Leaf (Ishikawa)Neighboring Hokuriku craft

Price snapshot across stores

No live price was retrievable for this item at the time of writing. The table below shows the buying paths rather than firm figures — confirm current price and stock before purchasing. JPY is the authoritative currency for the specific listed item; any USD figure would be an approximate estimate at a ¥150/USD baseline.

What it does well

Weaknesses and things to verify before buying

1. It is paper. Washi is tougher than ordinary paper, but it is not leather or metal; expect visible wear, softening at the corners, and vulnerability to water with heavy daily use.
2. Pattern is not guaranteed. Katazome runs rotate, so the exact pattern and color you receive may differ from any photo. Confirm what the live listing actually shows.
3. Capacity is modest. These cases are sized for business cards, not for doubling as a wallet with credit cards and coins. Verify the dimensions if you carry a thick stack.
4. Dimensions and weight unconfirmed. No spec sheet was available in the dataset; check the listing’s measurements before assuming it fits your cards.
5. Price not shown here. No live price was retrievable at the time of writing — do not assume a figure; check the retailer.
6. International shipping adds time and possibly duties. Buying from Amazon JP Global Store or via a proxy means longer transit and a customs check above local thresholds.

Conclusion — which buyer type are you?

Other ways to approach this purchase

🏆 Editor’s Pick

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

jpmono.com is curated by a Japan-based editorial team (working out of Toyama in the Hokuriku region and Nara in Kansai) and is independent. We do not take payment from the makers we feature; income comes from affiliate links. We do not physically test every product — we read makers’ specs and source listings.

This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed against the available source data. Where listing data was incomplete, the text states so plainly rather than estimating.

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