A Katagami Cut from Re-used Paper: Interlocking Circles

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
15" x 10 3/4", 38 cm x 27 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.

This one is unusual in the fact that recycled paper was used to create this stencil: by looking at the accompanying detail photo you can easily see this. It is both charming and very rare to find.

The design is that of shippo tsunagi or a traditional pattern of interlocking circles. The reverse side of this stencil shows a good amount of hand writing.

Just beautiful.