mt masking tape: the history of Japanese tape that turns 100

The first features between 1923 and 1960

The company, which will turn 100 in 2023, was started in 1923 when the then Kamoi Fly Paper Manufacturing - original name - started its production of used adhesive tapes as insect traps. An idea, therefore, born from a simple necessity.

Originally, the tape was produced in a full-fledged factory specializing in the industrial sector. Starting in the 1960s, washi paper tape arrived in this sector with a very specific function: after being presented as an adhesive insect trap, its first evolution can be read in the use industrial, in support of interventions such as the painting of buildings, cars and furniture.

The tape that meets art

2008 is the year of the great turning point for the Japanese company.

Three ladies from Tokyo – a collage artist, a gallery owner who in those years exhibited the former's works, and the manager of the coffee corner inside the space – fell in love with tape, interpreting this product as a promising tool also on the artistic front and decidedly more multifaceted than mere industrial use.

Thus began the story of mt masking tape as we know it today. The three women tried to play with the great creative versatility of washi tape, discovering an undoubtedly transversal artistic declination.

Different colors, patterns and thicknesses contributed over the years to increasing the creative spirit of washi tape, which became so appreciated all over the world, and which still continues to be used to decorate objects, walls, furniture.

mt masking tape: infinite faces to decor

The original washi paper tape from Kurashiki (Japan) is available today in over a thousand delications.

The material with which it is made, a special rice papertypically Japanese, makes it resistant and reliable despite being extremely thin. Its excellent adhesiveness is instead given by a non toxic glue, which guarantees that each tape is both well performing and easily removable, without leaving tracks.

It is a product that lends itself to infinite creative interpretations: the little ones like it because it allows them to decorate the walls with abstract motifs or figures; the older ones appreciate it for its ease of application but also of removal, once used even only for a special event.