heidatsu 平脱

Ch. Pingtuo. A technique in which thin sheets of metal are cut into decorative shapes and set in a lacquer base; the metal is revealed when further coats of lacquer are polished with charcoal or scraped away. Developed in China, this technique for decorating lacquer came to Japan in the Nara period and was very popular. It was sometimes used with *maki-e 蒔絵. Since the Heian period, it was called kanagai 金貝. The technique is usually known as hyōmon 平文 in Japan.