Sadao Watanabe

Sadao Watanabe, born in Tokyo in 1913, used the medium called kappazuri ("stencil printing"), a technique related to 'katazome' ("stencil dyeing"). 'Katazome' is said to have originated in Okinawa (the method there was called 'bingata'). The paper most widely used in Japan for stencil printing is called 'shibugami', made from several layers of 'kozo' paper laminated with persimmon tannin. The sheets are dried and smoke-cured to strengthen them and make them flexible and waterproof. Once the artist makes a drawing, it is fixed to the 'shibugami' with a thin adhesive. The basic pattern is then carved into a "key impression" stencil (the equivalent to the keyblock in woodblock printing) called the 'omogata'. If colors will also be used for the final design, separate stencils are sometimes cut for each color.

Watanabe, who was baptized a Christian in 1930, based his designs exclusively on Biblical subjects, though his Christian stories and figures are interpreted through a filter of traditional Japanese techniques and even some older Buddhist figure prints. The folk-art movement in Japan began in the 1930s as an attempt to keep alive various traditional arts, among them stencil printing. Watanabe was an early member of a small but important group of artists who dedicated themselves to learning and preserving these arts. Watanabe's emotioonally moving Biblical prints are have been popular throughout the world, and have been hung in the Vatican, the White House, in museums and in private collections.