A Katazome Stencil of Recycled Paper: Blue Pigment Dye

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
8 1/2" x 16 1/4", 21.5 cm x 41 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 as there is a good amount of hand writing on the paper from which this stencil was cut.

The design on this one is a simple pattern of X-like designs, perhaps they are meant to in some way mimic sashiko stiching, but it could also just be a simple, repeat pattern.

Turning the stencil over you can see the blue dye that had been used on this stencil: it is still very much evident and its tonal contrast to the reddish-brown paper is visually rich.

It is both charming and very rare to find--and a small gem.