Japan · cut paper / woven appearance
Cloth pretending
to be cloth.
A paper stencil carries the appearance of a pattern associated with yarn. One way of making becomes the subject of another.
Look / Try / Return to the object
How do you print the appearance of something woven?
A tool / before a transfer
The complete historical stencil remains on the left. Choose a stage to inspect the separate schematic.
Demonstration by Artologium. This simplified workflow does not reconstruct the surviving stencil’s original use.
The record
A pattern, before the cloth
The surviving object is paper treated with persimmon tannin and reinforced with silk threads. Begin with what remains: the cut surface that made a design transferable. It is a tool as well as an image.
Artologium reading
The appearance of another process
The catalogue title names the imitation. It connects the stencil’s geometry with warp ikat, rather than identifying an individual textile that someone copied. The fascination is in that change of technique.
Artologium reading
Try the distinction
Our instrument keeps the complete stencil beside a deliberately simplified drawing of a stencil workflow. Its marks demonstrate openings, a resist stage and a printed impression. They are not a recovered historical print, a tracing of the object or a reconstruction of its workshop.
The evidence stays with the story
What we know.
What remains open.
Supported relationship
Cooper Hewitt identifies this katagami as a geometric pattern imitating warp ikat, or kasuri.
Read the institution record ↗Object title and medium; accession 1976-103-110.
The boundary
The museum identifies a technique relationship. It does not identify a particular source cloth or an impression made with this stencil.
Surviving material: Paper (mulberry paper with persimmon tannin) · Manufacturing technique: Stencil cutting (katagami) · Imitated technique: Warp ikat weaving (kasuri). Our observation controls and diagrams are labeled editorial studies. Source images are unmarked in the viewer.
The research behind this view
Follow the evidence.
AI-assisted institutional source review and original close reading; independent specialist review pending.
Research version pattern-katagami.2 · checked 2026-10-24 · independent specialist review pending.
Read the shared research record ↗Sources, qualifications & review notes
Geometric Pattern Imitating Warp Ikat (Kasuri) ↗
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum · Object title and medium; accession 1976-103-110.
Cooper Hewitt identifies this katagami as a geometric pattern imitating warp ikat, or kasuri.
The museum identifies a technique relationship. It does not identify a particular source cloth or an impression made with this stencil.
Checked 2026-10-24 · retained-record. Existing institution-derived title and medium retained; the current Cooper Hewitt page refresh remains unavailable. This is not a fresh source-text verification.
Geometric Pattern Imitating Warp Ikat (Kasuri), chndm_1976-103-110 ↗
Smithsonian Institution / Cooper Hewitt · Indexed institutional object text: title, description, medium, record ID and Restrictions & Rights
The Smithsonian record describes the resemblance to ikat and identifies mulberry paper, persimmon tannin and silk threads. It marks the catalogue record Research in Progress.
Direct page refresh was unavailable; institution-indexed text corroborates the existing accession record. No exact source cloth or historical impression is identified.
Checked 2026-10-24 · indexed-text. Official Smithsonian indexed text checked against accession 1976-103-110. Current direct Cooper Hewitt and Smithsonian page fetches remain unavailable; no fresh source-text check claimed.
Why this work appears in these filters
- motif / Geometry
- Artologium visual observation · Complete supplied photograph; authored visual observation · reviewed 2026-10-24
- repeat structure / Geometric field
- Artologium visual observation · Complete supplied photograph; authored visual observation · reviewed 2026-10-24
- material / Paper
- Institution record · Object title, attribution, medium / technique and support fields; Object title and medium; accession 1976-103-110. · reviewed 2026-10-24
- technique / Stencil cutting (katagami)
- Institution record · Object title, attribution, medium / technique and support fields; Object title and medium; accession 1976-103-110. · reviewed 2026-10-24
- imitated technique / Warp ikat weaving (kasuri)
- Institution record · Object title, attribution, medium / technique and support fields; Object title and medium; accession 1976-103-110. · reviewed 2026-10-24
Continue into the collection / Catalogue records & comparisons
Inspect the objects in the catalogue.
Geometric Pattern Imitating Warp Ikat (Kasuri)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum · 1976-103-110. Open the full work, museum attribution, material and dating.
Stencil with Theme from Matsukaze
Another Japanese cut-paper resist stencil (katagami), using silk stabilizing threads across open areas rather than imitating warp ikat.
A different kind of connection
From paper imitating weaving to a flower organized by a loom.