Antique Japanese Katagami Textile Stencil with Cranes, Branches, and Handwritten Notes wedding day portrait Mayan and Peruvian Chancay pieces)

Mayan and Peruvian Chancay pieces)

Perfectly alligatored tall thin hand-painted lettering against perfectly aged cool white ground

Carved of cow bone

it is the more naive and personally expressive examples that attract me

I think never used

Antique Japanese Katagami Textile Stencil with Cranes, Branches, and Handwritten Notes wedding day portrait Mayan and Peruvian Chancay pieces)This is a Japanese "katagami" paper stencil, made of layers of mulberry paper laminated together and treated with kakishibu persimmon tannin that lends durability and water resistence. Paper stencil like this were traditionally used for patterning textiles, especially kimono fabric, using a resist dyeing process called katazome. I am not at all an expert but find them quite beautiful things, and really love the (all handcut) pattern on this one, with