Description

The Japanese folk art movement of the 1920s and 1930s
promoted the appreciation and preservation of Japan’s
handicrafts and folklore. Stenciling, a technique long
associated with designing kimono fabrics, gained new respect
from printmakers who used it for the first time to produce
purely artistic images.

A stencil is placed on top of a sheet of paper. Paste is brushed
over the stencil, passing through the cut-out areas onto the
paper. When the paste has dried, the stencil is removed and
dye is applied to the entire sheet of paper. Only the blank
areas of paper are colored since the paste prevents the paper
from absorbing the dye.