100 Japanese Stencil Designs

For centuries, Japanese artists have been renowned for the subtlety, ingenuity and acute artistic sensibility of their designs. They have evolved these qualities in the course of a long-lived artistic tradition that often focuses on plants, birds, flowers, fish, grasses and other natural elements. With seemingly effortless skill, the artist recaptures their beauty and delicacy, and presents them in dense, intricately balanced patterns. This mastery is wonderfully evident in this collection of 100 stencil designs, reprinted from a rare 19th-century German portfolio. Depicted here in styles ranging from realistic to deeply stylized, are such familiar Japanese motifs as peonies, bamboo rods, pine branches, dragons, carnations, chrysanthemums, cranes, carp, lilies, and other plants and animals in a profusion of eye-catching tableaux. Artists, craftspeople and any lover of Japanese art will treasure this abundant supply of authentic, ready-to-use stencil designs.