A Dyer's Stencil: Large Kanji

early twentieth century
11" x 10 1/8", 28 cm x 25.5 cm

A katagami is a hand cut stencil that is used as a guide to apply rice paste to the surface of cloth when dyeing in the katazome method. 

Katagami are made of paper that has been saturated with green persimmon tannin or kaki shibu and then smoked for added durability.

The cut design on this one is of a large, centrally placed kanji or Chinese character with a katakana character on the upper, right hand corner. The kanji is placed within a right angle.

The black ink or black dye that is smudged all over the stencil's images is deep and rich in tone and to the left of the kanji we see marks that indicate that the dyer used the katagami to blot his brush or to remove excess ink or dye from it.

This stencil showing the spirited characters is a small gem, a wonderful relic from the past and it is beautiful to look at.

Please note a good deal of loss to the lower corner of the stencil.