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A woodblock print of a 1797 Kamiko Workshop

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posted on 2025-01-22, 10:48 authored by Daphne Mohajer va PesaranDaphne Mohajer va Pesaran
A 1797 woodcut depicting a kamiko studio in the Ōshū area of Sendai (current day Shiroishi). In the larger wooden drum on the right, we see a vat of water with a ladle and some momigami soaking or draining in the foreground. The two men in the foreground appear to be vigorusly kneading momigami sheets. At the center of the first block, a hangiri (slatted wooden bowl of paste) sits next to a worker spreading the paste onto the edges of four sheets of staggered washi (momigami) using a hake (tsukemawashibake) style brush. This worker likely takes finished momigami for the stack of sheets just beyond his work table. The female worker behind him aligns and assembles the edge-glued paper, end to end, to make longer sheets that are rolled up into bolts of momigami-kamiko paper large enough to make garments from. The caption on the right of the image reads:“Sendai kamiko. It’s made of strong paper and is well wrinkled, so it is flexible and lustrous. There isn’t much cotton in Ōshū, so the common people have to wear paper clothing and most people wear it for sleepwear.” The text in which this image can be found is in the Japanese National Diet Library here: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/en/pid/1880976/1/1

Funding

Endangered Material Knowledge Programme

History

Session

HD01

Rights owner

Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran

Cultural group

Japanese

Participants

Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran

Country

Japan

Place

Shiroishi, Miyagi

Item/object

A woodblock print of a 1797 Kamiko Workshop

Cultural context/event

General production

Temporality

Originally pubished in 1797

Intent

Historical documentation

Date of creation

2024-01-22

Unique ID

2019SG04-HD01-0208

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    Endangered Material Knowledge Programme

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