A Katagami or Katazome Stencil: Bold Design and Blue Pigment

early twentieth century
13 1/4" x 8 1/4", 33.5 cm x 20.9 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 shows a large, centrally placed bold image of two stacked folding fans which are set within a circle. There is intense almost-ultramarine blue pigment that rims the design, a remnant of the process used to transfer this image to cloth.

There is some loss at the bottom, right of the stencil and the image is stark and commanding.

A lovely old katagami.