Keywords
Art History
Painting
Lit. "gold dust printing." A technique used for woodblock printmaking *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 to achieve the effect of scattered gold powder and/or scattered small shapes cut from gold leaf. First, a plain yellow background *jitsubushi 地潰し is printed. Then separate color blocks are carved to print scattered dots and small squares in darker yellow, brown and black on top of the yellow background. Sometimes smaller dots will be carved into the larger dots to achieve a dappled effect.
An example of the technique is the series of five landscape prints, Edo meisho-no-uchi 江戸名所之内 (From Among the Famous Places in Edo) published by Izumiya Ichibei 和泉屋市兵衛 (act. 1830-35) by Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (also known as Andō 安藤 Hiroshige, 1797-1858).