Textile Printing with Paper Stencils in Japan
Introduction
Printing fabric is generally faster and easier than hand-embroidering or weaving designs or using other surface techniques. However, making the tool to reproduce a motif can be a process that is just as complex and time-consuming. This grouping of works presents ise katagami—one of the many ways Japanese makers have introduced pattern onto fabric. Paper stencils (katagami) are shown alongside printed fabrics and textile swatches.
The RISD Museum cares for a collection of nearly 100 handmade and hand-cut katagami, an art form now identified by the Japanese government as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Historically and even today, these stencils are produced in the Ise-Shima Peninsula of Japan. Katagami, and specifically those examples using silk support threads, led to the popular printing technique known as silkscreen.
–Laurie Anne Brewer, curator of costume and textiles
Laurie Brewer, curator, costume and textiles
RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors.