Katagami stencil depicting cockerels perched on drums tsuzumi and hens against a background of vegetation.

Katagami stencil depicting cockerels perched on drums tsuzumi and hens against a background of vegetation. The popular motif of a cockerel on a drum derives from a Chinese legend versions of which include that an emperor placed a drum outside his palace for the people to strike when the had a complaint but because he ruled well the drum became overgrown and cockerels perched on it, or that the drum was used to summon an army but because the emperor ruled peacefully it was never needed. A fine mesh of supporting threads made of silk is sandwiched between two layers of this stencil. This stencil is of the sansun okuri or koban size class (determined by the repeat length). This is one of around 400 Japanese katagami stencils which are part of the Silver Studio Collection. The stencils were produced in Japan as a way of applying patterns to fabric, mainly kimonos. The katagami collected by the Silver Studio were used by their designers as reference material to produce their own Japanese-inspired patterns.