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.
the senda family still produces karakami for temples
and other traditional places in japan. additionally they
produce on demand for architects (kengo kuma is among
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,
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 doorsonce, 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 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’
woodblocks
detail of wave pattern on woodblock
detail of clouds pattern on woodblock
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’.
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
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