oshi-e 押絵

Fabric pictures. Representations of figures, birds, animals, flowers, landscapes or characters of a poem that are cut out of pieces of thick paper. These forms are then covered with pieces of fabric such as gold brocade *kinran 金襴, damask *donsu 緞子, gauze silk sha 紗, twill cloth *aya 綾, crepe chirimen 縮緬, or plain weave silk heiken or hiraginu 平絹. The fabric-covered shapes are pasted onto a thin board of cardboard to form a picture. This technique was used for the letters of the poems in the 100 poets *Hyakunin isshu 百人一首. For the decoration of battled ores hago-ita 羽子板, cotton is often added to pad the space beneath the forms to give a three-dimensional effect. Oshi-e were called brocade pictures *nishiki-e 錦絵 in Osaka.