A type of cat tool. The bag is filled with mud plaster and closed with a metal oleander. The bag is filled with plaster and closed with a metal oleander. Itchin was first used for dyeing, and has been used since the Edo period to draw patterns on ceramics, and has also been used for export porcelain since the Meiji period. A method similar to this is to use a bamboo tube with a spigot and fill it with white plaster, and then draw letters and other patterns on the black base. More recently, eye-dropper is also used for this technique. These decorative techniques are called “itchin-zari,” “itchin-hake,” and “itch-zaiku. The origin of the word itchin is not clear, but one theory is that it came from Ichichensai, another name for Kusumi Morikage. Morikage was involved in underglaze painting on Ko-kutani, but he was also involved in yuzen and other styles, and was the first to use itchin to dye through dyed paste lines.
