Ch: tiexianmiao. Lit. "iron-wire line drawing." A technique used to render the thin, even lines commonly seen in paintings of Buddhist deities. Tessenbyō lines are taut and basically unmodulated, serving primarily to outline and define shapes in a descriptive rather than an expressive manner. The lines are usually painted in red *shu 朱 and accompanied by flat application of pigment within the outlined forms. Weichi Yiseng (Jp: Utchi Ossō 尉遅乙僧, late 7th to early 8th century) of Khotan, an ancient country in Central Asia, who resided in China during the early Tang dynasty, is said to have used a type of iron-wire line, perhaps derived from Buddhist painting in India and Central Asia.
Iron-wire line drawing became widespread in Japan during the Nara and Heian periods. One of the most famous examples of tessenbyō in Japan is the wall painting of Hōryūji *Kondō 法隆寺金堂, Nara, largely damaged by fire in 1949. It is one of the eighteen types of figural portrayal *jinbutsu jūhachibyō 人物十八描.