Imadate

Imadate's Goka villages made paper that linked a rural Echizen valley to the business of rulers and merchants. In the medieval period, thick Echizen hōsho paper was prized for official documents. Successive lords, including the Asakura, Oda and Toyotomi houses, protected its makers with privileges. The Mitamura family occupied a powerful position in production and sales, receiving permission to mark paper bundles with seals associated with Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.

In 1661 Goka supplied paper for Fukui domain's notes. Other domains subsequently turned to the same villages for their currency paper. Fukui's authorities regulated the trade: in 1675 they prohibited the export of Goka hōsho to other provinces, and in 1699 established a paper office at Iwamoto with a system of authorized seal holders. Papermaking thus brought the district into the fiscal institutions and commercial controls of the Edo period.