chokuhitsu 直筆

A painting and calligraphy technique where the brush is held perpendicular to the paper so that just the tip is used to produce a line. Commonly employed in both ink landscape painting *sansuiga 山水画 and yamato style painting *yamato-e やまと絵 for details, fine hair-line drawings *kegaki 毛描, and iron-wire line drawings *tessenbyō 鉄線描. The technique was modified by extending the raised arm which held the brush away from the side of the body, thus enabling the entire arm rather than just the waist to draw the stroke. Called kenwan chokuhitsu 懸腕直筆, this brush technique became one of the traditional strokes in the Kano school *Kano-ha 狩野派 repertoire.