KEISO-KUN

KEISO-KUN is the name of a wall paint /wall paper series including diatom earth supplied by Onewill Co., ltd.. Diatom earth is a "breathing soil", which can absorb and release moisture depending on humidity. There are quite a few diatom earth wall materials in Japan, but their product is different from others in three ways.

1. It includes about 40% diatom earth to maximize the effect of absorbtion

There are many products which claim to include diatom earth, but the amount varies, and of course it effects the ability to absorb water. You can actually feel how this wall material absorbs moisture at their showroom. The two doors lead to two small rooms with the same humidity, and when you touch the walls, you can feel that the one with ordinary plastic wall paper is wet, while the one with KEISO-KUN is slightly sweating but not so much. By data, it can breathe in 125g/m2 moisture in a room set at 30C and 95% humidity. This is twice as much as ordinary KEISO-DO wall material.

2. It uses lime paste instead of synthetic resin to keep the soil together

So what is good about using lime?
First of all, you need to use some kind of glue to stick the soil together, but you don't want it to be synthetic resin. By using lime, which is a natural glue also popular for old Japanese architecture, KEISO-KUN does not include chemical compounds that does harm to your health.
Secondly, lime is alkaline, which means it can prevent mold without using mildew-proofing agents. This was commonly known in old Japan, a wisdom of living in such humid country.
And third, formaldehyde〔HCHO〕in air is acid, so when the wall absorbs this compound from the air, the lime will neutralize it. This means that the wall can literally absorb (and won't release) harmful chemicals to prevent sickhouse syndrome!
Now this is technology... or even craftsmanship.

3. They developed a new technology from Soy-sauce?!

A soy sauce production company asked Onewill to do a research for recycling diatom earth after used for soy sauce production. Although it was too cost consuming to recycle the earth into wall paint, they figured out that Amino had a great effect on increasing the amount of moisture absorption. Onewill and the Kanagawa Industry & Technology Center conducted further research, and came out with this breathing wall that can inhale formaldehyde and control humidity.


The picture is the showroom of Onewill Co., ltd.. The statue of the elephant was brought from Thailand by the CEO. Elephants are said to be able to communicate at long distances using ultrasonic sound, and their message is that "direct communication is important in this world of electric communication". You can visit Onewill Showroom from Ohfuna Station (Tokaido Line). Contact Mr. Kohbuchi from 0467-43-1415 (Japanese only) or if you need assistance in English, call Ecotwaza at 042-573-5613 or email info@ecotwaza.com

Onewill Co., ltd. website (Japanese only)
http://www.onewill.co.jp/