Antique Japanese Katagami Kimono Stencil

Description

Katagami (or ise-katagami) is the Japanese art of creating paper stencils for dying fabric. The stencils are typically made with three sheets of paper bonded together by persimmon juice (kakishibu). It is said only ten families ever practiced this lost art. This framed bark katagami stencil would have been used for dying kimonos because it is attached to a web of human hair to help prevent warping. Meiji period, circa 1860

Size: (entire frame) 25″ height, 50″ width (stencil only) 16.5″ height, 41.75″ width