In an age of computer controlled mechanized fabric printing, certain people still continue to hold on to the traditional printing using wooden blocks.
Mohammad Yusuf is one such artisan, locally known as Naqash who holds on to a dying art of fabric printing in Kashmir.
Picking up different types of hand-carved wooden printing blocks, Yusuf puts different designs on a piece of fabric. Although he belonged to a well-educated family, he choose fabric printing over his studies because he was very passionate about it.
This art is believed to have been brought to Kashmir by the Sultan Zain-ul- Abidin – the eighth sultan of Kashmir – and still remains one of the rich heritages in Kashmir. “Naqsh – the blueprint of the design — is an important stage in Kashmiri shawl making. It is only after the Naqsh is imprinted on the fabric that embroidery work commences on the shawls.
It is basically the Naqash who prints unique designs on the Kashmiri shawls, and subsequently the embroidery work on the design makes them attractive and famous world-wide.
Yusuf learned this art from his master, Ghulam Qadir Naqash, who ran a shop in Aali Kadal. He taught him how to prepare ink for creating Naqsh imprints. He guided him on how to turn his passion into a livelihood.”
Situated in the Kawadara area of Shehr-e-Khas, the shop of Mohammad Yusuf is a store for thousands of woodblock designs which he has created himself. Complex, yet beautifully designed woodblocks occupy each shelve of his shop.
Like any other art and craft in Kashmir, Naqsh making is also dying slowly as it is losing the race with other modern artworks. Above all, Kashmiri youth are more inclined to modern artworks as nothing is being done at the academic level to make the young generation learn and promote their own traditional ways of designing.
The Better Kashmir salutes people like Yusuf who is trying every niche to hold on tradition of Kashmir and its dying arts.
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