This corpus repository documents the Arsenale Institute's Logical Rain exhibition at the Japanisches Palais, Dresden in 2014 on behalf of the Dresden State Art Collections, which holds some sixteen thousand Katagami examples. Skilled carving of these stencils, made from paper laminated with persimmon extracts, which were used for printing repeating patterns—notably on to fine fabrics—was already a major industry in 17th century Japan. Although produced in very large numbers, with techniques refined continuously up until the early 20th century, katagami were invariably discarded at the end of their useful life until in 1955 (Showa 30) the National Council for the Preservation of Cultural Properties designated six people in the art of making Ise katagami as Living National Treasures.

The Dresden collection of katagami is remarkable for its size and breadth and also for its surviving removal during the Second World War. It was acquired from the Berlin dealer Hermann Pächter in 1889 for teaching and exhibition, by the then Kunstgewerbemuseum, Dresden, but until the Logical Rain exhibition very few of these objects had been accessible for 125 years. High resolution scans of 140 of the katagami are presented in this repository, as well as a digital version of the catalog for the exhibition, which is no longer in print, but also much of the preparatory material including translations of essays in English.