Exhibitor’s Stories

How does paper do the job of promoting the udon noodle packaged within?

Kishimen are flat-shaped udon noodles that have nourished Japanese for over four centuries. White paper is chosen for its packaging for many reasons. First, its colour suggests the whitish, cream-coloured noodle. As the paper is folded multiple times, long, vertical creases appear to represent the handmade noodles that are never cut, but are hung on bamboo poles to dry. For this reason, the two ends of the package are clamped with bamboo sticks. Packaging not only serves to protect the product within, it also preserves a delicious strand of traditional Japanese culinary culture. Peace Graphics, of Nagoya, Japan, founded by Hidekazu Hirai, designed this luxury-looking packaging to promote a traditional food product and the noodle making method that is slowly disappearing across Japan.