Katagami and symbolism

Researcher and practitioner Mamiko Markham's images and transcripts for a talk exploring the symbolism of the motifs used in katagami stencil design and the methods used to make them, including a paper introducing the traditional 'Hikizome' workshop she gave at ULITA and a handout explaining identifying Katagami using analysis of infrared photographs, by naked eye examination and by historical background. The talk was delivered on 5 December 2017 at ULITA - An Archive of International Textiles at the University of Leeds as part of the Katagami in Practice Arts Council england Research Project and the ULITA exhibition 'Katagami – the Craft of the Japanese Stencil' which ran from 11 April 2017 – 7 December 2017The process of using Katagami:The fabric is first stretched using bamboo sticks (Shinshi). A Katagami stencil is placed on the fabric and past resist is applied. The Dyer uses a Hake brush to 'paint' dye on the fabric. This process is called 'Hikizome'.In the UK, immersion dyeing has often been used after applying paste resists by Katagami stencil. Alternatively dye printing directly by Katagami stencil. However, traditional Katagami stencil use, from past to present, 'Hikizome', uses the Hake brush.