In the spring of 2025 I acquired approximately 500 antique katazome stencils in an auction. The designs are all hand carved, and most use the thread laying technique known as ito-ire to suspend floating parts.

In an effort to make these designs available to the public, I am slowly photographing them and tagging them for search. It’s a big effort, as the stencils were stored in a warehouse full of paper moths and straw, and so I have to carefully clean and document each one while minimizing any further damage.

I am not sure what era the stencils are from, but they are mostly likely from before ww2 because the ito ire technique was used in that period, and then switched out to the much easier gauze technique during the showa period.

These designs are not my artwork and they are very old; they belong to everyone and are released under the public domain.

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