That is the rebranded Awagami. I had some email conversations with one of the Japanese higher ups at Awagami ( who was fluent in English ) when I was in a show over there and he told me then that the two places you could purchase their papers in the U S were freestyle in California and Moab. I have used them both. The coating is good on both and both are very expensive but very well made. I ordered a 44" x 40' roll of the Awagami thick kozo this weekend from Freestyle and it with ground shipping it came to $ 500.00 . Moab is about the same.
In in the past I had run out of this same kozo and they were backordered in that size so I ordered the Moab version. The coating was the same but the Moab was thinner and not as warm, maybe bleached a bit but not bright white. With kozo I generally prefer the natural warm formulas but either one is high quality.
So I guess the deal is Awagami creates this particular version especially for Moab. Freestyle has what looks like the full line of Awagami coated for inkjet papers in many blends and textures. Moab only sells that kozo of theirs and the Bizan another beautiful Awagami surface.
As to Gary's kozo paper thin, there is no equivalent of that. The resolution, dmax, and color gamut is in a class all its own. Especially since it is also so thin that it can easily be used as both a transparency medium backlit as well as a regular portfolio print. It is astonishing. I've used both the Awagami and Gary's product side by side with the same image and although both were nice , Gary's thin kozo is much more photographic. Actually some people might prefer a little more softness of traditional kozo, but my feeling was you can always reduce gamut, contrast, and resolution of your file if you want. The paper Gary created is I believe 20% cotton and 80% kozo. The Awagami kozo thick is 100% mulberry.
It's a moot point now as Awagami and Hiromi are what we have left.
John
Would this be a suitable substitute: https://www.moabpaper.com/moenkopi-washi/ ??
