Antique Japanese Katagami Textile Stencil with Cranes, Branches, and Handwritten Notes for the cocktail party The covers on these are

The covers on these are pretty rough--detached in the case of two of them--but I've got a weakness for these old drawing instruction books

Some of his paintings show nail holes

and which was named for him

They each measure 2 5/8" tall x 2 1/2" long x 3/8" thick

I believe it might be chalk

Antique Japanese Katagami Textile Stencil with Cranes, Branches, and Handwritten Notes for the cocktail party The covers on these areThis is a Japanese "katagami" paper stencil, made of layers of mulberry paper laminated together and treated with kakishibu persimmon tannin that lends durability and water resistence. Paper stencil like this were traditionally used for patterning textiles, especially kimono fabric, using a resist dyeing process called katazome. I am not at all an expert but find them quite beautiful things, and really love the (all handcut) pattern on this one, with