Stencil yuzen began early in the Meiji era, and as the name implies, the purpose was to allow mass-production of kimono. Katazome refers to the dyeing of the fabric by stencil, and somegata indicates the actual stencil. Today, somegata is not used only for kimono but also for clothing, curtains, neckties, scarves, T-shirts, chiyogami, and more - anything made of fabric or paper can be dyed. The process of applying dye to fabric is known as nassen. Dyeing factories use our stencils for their production. Therefore, somegata can also be referred to as nassengata and is broadly divided into three types: paper, silk-screen and roller. Silk-screen nassen consists of hand-print and auto-print; roller nassen includes both roller print and rotary screen print. |