Keywords
Art History
Painting
Ch: dingtou shuweimiao. Lit. "nail head-rattail drawing." A brush stroke technique used to create the clothing of figures in Japanese ink painting. The beginning of the stroke looked like the head of a nail and gradually diminished into a long thin line like the tail of a rat. This brush style is said to date back to the Five Dynasties period, although it is most commonly associated with paintings of the Southern Song academy painter Ma Yuan (Jp: Ba En 馬遠, fl. ca. 1190-1264) and the artists of the Zhe school Seppa 浙派 in the Ming dynasty. It is one of the 18 types of figural portrayal *jinbutsu jūhachibyō 人物十八描.