Tokat Yazma Craft

Yazma means written, and it describes cloth printed by hand: a design is carved in relief into a block of pear or lime wood, the block is charged with dye and pressed onto cotton, and a full scarf takes many impressions in several colours, each requiring its own block and its own drying. Tokat has done this since the Ottoman period and holds a geographical indication for it. The patterns are floral and geometric, often with a border and a distinct field, and the older workshops keep collections of blocks going back generations. Natural dyes from madder, walnut husk and pomegranate were traditional and some workshops have returned to them. The Taşhan, a seventeenth-century caravanserai in the town centre, houses printers and sellers around its courtyard, and the craft is demonstrated there. Tokat also has a large collection of Ottoman houses, a Seljuk medrese museum and, on the road out, the Ballıca cave.

What you actually see

• The carved blocks - pear and lime wood printing blocks.
• The printing - cloth struck by hand, colour by colour.
• The Taşhan - the caravanserai courtyard of workshops.
• The natural dyes - madder and walnut in the older shops.

When to go

Year-round; weekday working hours to see printing in progress. Workshops close on Sundays.

Honest expectations

Machine-printed scarves are sold alongside hand-blocked ones at much lower prices - ask which is which. Workshops are small working premises. Demonstrations lead to sales, as everywhere.

Nearby

Ballıca cave is about half an hour south; Amasya is an hour and a half west.