Posted by John Fiorillo on December 11, 1998 at 03:13:21:
In Reply to: Sadao Watanabe posted by Lynelle Tarter on December 06, 1998 at 22:50:25:
: A classmate and I are doing a presentation on Sadao Watanabe for our Japanese Culture class. We would like to know how Watanabe made his prints. We already know that Watanabe adapted his technique from a form of Okinawan textile prints and that he used stencils, not woodblocks. What we would really like to know is how he made used his stencils. Any one have any ideas?
Response from JF:
Here’s a quote from the monograph on Watanabe (Biblical Prints by Sadao Watanabe. Tokyo: Shinkyo Shuppansha, Tokyo. 1986. Page 28):
"The art of katazome originated among the people of Okinawa. It is a unique craft of dyeing textiles through cut out paper patterns. Watanabe applies this technique to create unusual stencil prints on Japanese paper. After applying natural dyes on rice paper [sic] which are fixed with an ingredient from the astringent persimmon, he washes the paper. Then, after putting rice paste upon the paper stencil, he applies the natural color all over, and washes the paper again. Traditionally this process, called mizumoto (to wash by water), is the most fascinating part of the katazome…"
The description is rather inadequate, I’m afraid (but see below). In addition, the so-called "rice paper" in the quote above is actually inaccurate (and yet so frequently used in discussions on Japanese prints!). Although paper can be made from almost anything that can be mashed into a pulp and then set into thin sheets, "rice paper" was not typically used in traditional printmaking. Rather several types of kozô (paper mulberry, one species being Broussone papyrifera) were the standard papers used for commercial printing. Watanabe used a type of kozô called momigami (crumpled wrinkled paper), which was a thick paper purposely crumpled by hand and then only partly smoothed out before printing.
Both Watanabe (1913-1996) and the other important stencil print designer Mori Yoshitoshi (1898-1992) studied with Serizawa Keisuke. Mori’s technique, probably identical to Watanabe’s, is described on page 142 in Mori Yoshitoshi Kappa-ban by Abe Setsuko and Matsuoka Haruo, published by the Mori Exhibition Organizing Committee, 1985) [comments in brackets are mine]:
"… The stencil paper most widely used in Japan is called shibugami, which is made from laminated sheets of handmade paper held together with persimmon tannin. The sheets are dried and smoke-cured to make them strong, flexible, and waterproof. … After the drawing is completed, it is fixed to the shibugami with a thin adhesive. The omogata, a key impression stencil, is then carved out with a sharp stencil knife. The last step of preparing the design is to cut out the stencils for different colors … Prior to printing, a dye-resist paste is applied to the portions of the design to be left unprinted: these portions will appear white when the print is completed [but see my comment below] . The first colors printed are the light areas, … A resist paste is [then] brushed on these printed areas. When the resist paste has dried, the other colors are brushed over the pattern stencils. After all the colors are printed, the key impression stencil is placed over the print, and the entire print is covered with resist paste. The key impression stencil is then removed [thus exposing for printing only the areas just uncovered by removing the key impression stencil] . When the paste has dried completely, the uncovered key impression lines are printed … after the ink has dried, the resist paste is washed off, and the print is [thus] completed…."
Note that in Watanabe’s case he typically printed on a colored ground, so he would first apply a color to the paper before taking the other steps described in Mori’s process.