A Repurposed Katagami: Katazome Stencil

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
15 3/4" x 10 3/4", 40 cm x 27.5 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.

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 boldly presented hand writing on the paper from which this stencil was cut.

The cut design on this one is rather abstract, it is small figured and all-over with an allusion to some kind of organic or plant-like reference.

Turning the stencil over you can see the black dye that had been used on one section of this stencil, its tonal contrast to the reddish-brown paper is visually rich.

It is both charming and rare to find--and a small gem which is beautiful to look at.