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karachos karakami
woodblock-printed paper
http://www.karacho.co.jp established in kyoto in 1624, karacho is japan's only karakami maker (woodblock-printed paper). still in operation today, the karacho workshop has been directed by members of the senda family for 12 generations, preserving a japanese tradition. the sendas are the custodians of 650 hand-carved wooden blocks, made over the centuries and they still use them to produce the karakami paper for which karacho is world famous. some blocks are more than 200 years old - the oldest (with a checkered pattern of chrysanthemums), dates back to 1792. when the residential quarter of the karacho studio burned down in the 1864 hamaguri gomon incident, the woodblocks were placed in a wash-tub of water in a storehouse with earthen walls. to protect the blocks from fire, craftsmen kept pouring water on them. such a close encounter with destruction has ensured that the surviving woodblocks are treated as a treasure. massimo mini (designboom) visiting karacho. - meeting up with koh kado in front of the senda family still produces karakami for temples the and other traditional places in japan. additionally they produce on demand for architects (kengo kuma is among entrance of the karacho shop in shugakuin, kyoto, japan. them). while western-style housing increasingly is favored by many japanese, there is also a growing number of people who want to decorate parts of their homes with traditional karakami patterns. karakami patterns the technique has remained virtually unchanged for more than 400 years: karakami is produced by pressing pigment onto paper using patterned wooden blocks. the patterns show the strong artistic influence of the rimpa school of painting, as the studio was used by artist honami koetsu (1558-1637), one of the founders of the school. the meditative designs combine subtle colors with a pattern of freedom and life force. nature provides the spirit of invention and discovery that inspires the ornaments of all the patterns. with the rise of popular culture in the edo period (1603-1868), the karacho woodblock prints became a major artform and its technique was fine tuned to produce hand-made prints used to decorate sliding doors, woodblocks walls and single-leaf screens. karakami woodblock prints also had an important influence on 18th-century european wallpapers textile patterns and patterns on book covers. further on we will examine the production of karakami (see page 2). fusama doors once, the space under the roof of a japanese house was partitioned with screens into several spaces. these movable screens were eventually fixed into the wood frame and became sliding fusama doors. fusuma doors are used as movable walls, so when people host large gatherings in the house the panels can be removed to make one large space. originally several sheets of paper, in sets of 5, 10, or 12, were required to cover a fusama door, at the end of taisho period (1912 - 1926), techniques were successfully developed to make large single sheets that were fusama size. the nobility were first to use karakami paper on fusama doors their preference was for patterns based detail of wave pattern on woodblock on their family crests and which reflected their court ranking and status. the majority of the patterns are combinations of flowers and plants such as chrysanthemum, bamboo, maple, and pine with geometric designs of diamonds, squares, tortoise-shell motifs, circles, crisscrossing lines and wave patterns. other popular motives include cranes and clouds. the senda family also repair sliding doors at historical sites such as katsura rikyu (see page 3). tea ceremony karakami paper was used for the interior of tearooms. many leading ceremony schools designed their own patterns. their taste lead more towards patterns of plants than abstract motifs. karachos stock of woodblocks include a large number with tea-related patterns. among the most famous are patterns favored by the ura and omoke senke detail of clouds pattern on woodblock schools of tea ceremony.

page 2

see the process of making karakami

page 3
kenkichi senda, the master craftsman and eleventh-generation head of karacho studio, is showing a sheet of paper with big wave patterns called korin onami.

karakami inside katsura rikyu, the katsura imperial villa

the blocks are sorted according to the number required to print one fusama

the original woodblocks were carved by craftsmen almost 400 years ago. most of the blocks are made of easy-to-carve honoki wood, which has a fine, soft grain and rarely warps or cracks.

karakami expert wakoku shoshoku etsukushi (1685) all images designboom

design-aerobics courses this is an example of a design-aerobics lesson from the 'paper' course - part of our 'materials cycle'. --design-aerobics are 'online design education courses'. ideated and managed by the designboom team. find out how the courses work here