Ch: Ma Shihuang. An ancient, legendary practitioner of Daoist arts and horse doctor during the rule of Emperor Huang (Ch:…

Ch: Mei Fu. Chinese immortal shown in painting as riding a luan (Jp: ran 鸞), a mythical bird similar to a…

Lit. double format. A size of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 print used for full-color woodblock…

Also kōchakuzai 膠着剤. Binder, vehicle. A liquid mixed with a pigment *ganryō…

Also written 馬棟 or 波連. The most important tool used in the process of woodblock printmaking. A baren is made up of…

Also written ベンガラ, 紅柄, or 紅殻. Sometimes pronounced benigara. Red earth pigment. A bright, purplish-red pigment *…

Discriminating Jade from Stone Collection, a late 17th-century miscellany on art which ranges from the discussion of tea…

A black-line hand-colored woodblock print *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 that began to be…

A red dye, senryō 染料, and pigment *ganryō 顔料, made from the safflower…

Also murasaki-e 紫絵; beni-nuki 紅抜き. Woodblock prints which completely omit bright vermilion *…

Primitive polychrome woodblock prints in *ukiyo-e 浮世絵. Appeared after *…

Musashibō Benkei 武蔵坊弁慶, a semi-legendary warrior-monk of the 12th century, who was associated with Minamoto no *…

Also bero-ai ベロ藍. Prussian blue or Berlin blue. A synthetic blue paint made from ferric ferrocyanide, imported to…

Miscellaneous Record of Classified Sacred Images, a late Heian compendium of Buddhist iconography. Also called the…

A term which comes from the Portuguese for painting with oil pigments on the reverse side of glass. Fifty such paintings are…

Lit. pictures of beautiful women. Pictures depicting the beauty of the appearance, manners, and customs of women. The word…

Ch: Pipaxing. A painting subject based on the Song of the Lute, a narrative poem by the mid Tang dynasty poet, Bai…

Various block carving and printing techniques used to create gradated tones (shading) on woodblock prints, particularly 19th…

1　A gradation of colors or tones from dark to light or vice versa. One example is colorization of the…

Lit. pictures of horses at pasture. One type of genre painting *fūzokuga 風俗画…

Lit. ink plum. Ch: momei. Paintings of plum (actually prunus) rendered in sumi 墨 ink. Along with ink…

Ch: mozhu. Painting of bamboo rendered in *sumi 墨 ink. Bamboo…

Lit. herdboy and ox. Ch: mutong muniu. A Chinese painting theme long popular in Japanese ink painting. The subject…

Lit. ink play. Ch: moxi. The literati conception of painting as a form of self-expression, meant to convey ideas…

Ch: molan. Paintings of wild orchids rendered in *sumi 墨 ink. Related to…

1　Abbreviation of botan karakusagawara 牡丹唐草瓦. A roof tile, often an eaves-end tile, whose pendant…

A Chinese floral pattern *karakusamon 唐草文, composed of curling grape vines…

Paintings of *bugaku 舞楽, a classical Japanese court dance that sometimes used…

Ch: Fenggan. The Tang-dynasty priest noted for his eccentric behavior, who was usually depicted with his pet tiger. Fenggan…

Also bunbō shigan 文房四玩, bunbō shiyū 文房四友, and bunbō shikō 文房四候. Lit. the four treasures of the…

A general term for objects like brushes, paper, ink *sumi 墨, and inkstone *…

Bunchō's Treatise on Painting, an early 18th-century miscellany on painters, painting techniques, tools, and…

A class of mounting for hanging scrolls *kakemono 掛物, that was originally…

Ch: wenrenhua. Lit. literati painting.  A type of painting in China, Korea, and Japan. In Japan, the term …

Catalog of objects in Butsunichian, the 14th-century inventory of artistic and other properties of Butsunichian 仏日庵…

A pale blue pigment *ganryō 顔料, used in Japanese painting *…

A pale green pigment *ganryō 顔料, used in Japanese painting *…

Paintings on folding screens *byōbu 屏風. 

The earliest record of…

A folding screen consisting of multiple, joined panels. Folding screens vary in size; the standard size consists of six…

Refers to the books of the floating world, *ukiyo zōshi 浮世草子, published by…

A pictorial subject taken from "The Broom Tree," Hahakigi, Chapter 2 of Genji Monogatari 源氏物語 (The…

Simple paintings which accompany and interact with the 17-syllable poetic verse called haiku, 俳句. Haiga is…

A wide, multi-purpose brush made of animal hair attached to a wooden handle. Hake range in size from 3 cm to 18 cm…

Lit. eight views. Eight scenic spots from one geographic area specifically chosen to be treated in verse or pictures. The…

Lit. biographies of eight dogs. A pictorial subjectin *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 taken from…

Lit. foil or leaf. Gold, silver, copper, tin, or brass pounded into a thin flat sheet and used for the decoration of art…

Ch: Bo Ya Zhong Ziqi. A pictorial theme of friendship in Chinese painting. When the Zhou dynasty musician Bo Ya (Jp: …

Lit. Be Le assessing a horse. A Chinese painting subject of the 4th century horse trainer named Be Le (Jp: Haku Raku…

Ch: Bai Letian (772-846). A Chinese poet of the mid-Tang dynasty, depicted in a tradition of imaginary portrait paintings.…

Although the term literally means white drawing, hakubyō 白描 is a technique of painting that relies primarily on the…

Kaolin. Also todo とど. A fine soft white clay produced by the decomposition of other clays feldspar. Hakudo…

Painting on silk. In ancient China, before paper-making was developed, silk or haku (also called so 繪) was…

Ch: Boyi Shuqi. Brothers who lived during the late Shang - early Zhou dynasties, who were praised by Confucius for declining…

Paintings of a flat, undulatory sandy beach or sand spit with windswept pines, a traditional theme of *…

A plug used in *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 woodblock printmaking for making corrections or…

Ch: Pan Lang. Chinese Zhou dynasty recluse, originally a retainer of King Mu (Ch: Muwang; Jp: Bokuō 穆王, ca. 1001-972 BC).…

Pictorial Subject matter of *yamato-e やまと絵 painting. "The…

Also hanabishimon 花菱文. Decorative patterns *mon'yō 文様, or…

A pictorial subject based on Chapter 11 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji), "The Orange Blossoms" …

A pattern that features flying birds grasping flowers or small branches in their beaks. The design may feature phoenixes,…

Also written 咄本 or 話本. Lit. storybooks. Collections of humorous short stories and anecdotes popular during the Edo period.…

One of the painting guilds or studios za 座 in the atelier *nanto-edokoro…

The standard size of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 prints. Print sizes are given in the…

Also called ita 板. The wood used for the curved blocks which make woodblock prints *…

A print based on a rebus. A collection of images that might suggest a place name, the name of a courtesan, or a phrase from…

Also written 板本.

1　Also kanpon 刊本. A printed book of any type.

…

Also written 半折 and 半截. A size of paper obtained when full-size paper *zenshi…

Also written 判紙. A small-sized paper, approximately 25 cm by 35 cm. Being a convenient size for a variety of documents, …

Abbreviation of hanshita-e 版下絵. The final master drawing or design which was used by an artist or his workshop to…

Pictures on paper pasted onto small boxes and prized by women and girls in the early 18th century. Most of the pictures were…

A strip of paper encircling the outside cover *hyōshi 表紙 of a book, on which…

Also written 貼交絵. Prints of two or more subjects on a single page. Most common are colored paper shapes, poem-card *…

Also haritsukega 貼付画. Abbreviation of kabe haritsuke-e 壁貼付絵. Paintings on paper (or infrequently on silk)…

A thin (1.5 cm+), flat wooden frame glued to silk to stabilize it while it is being painted *…

A school of painters active in the 16th century and the 17th century, founded by Hasegawa Tōhaku 長谷川等伯 (1539-1610) who is…

1　A pictorial subject based on "The Lady at the Bridge" Hashihime, Chapter 45 of Genji…

1　Paintings e 絵 executed on the interior pillars *hashira…

Ch: baxian. Lit. eight immortals. The eight figures considered to be the experts in and protectors of Taoism. The impetus…

Ch: Bazhong huapu. Primer on Eight Varieties of Painting, a compilation of eight texts on poetry and painting…

Also written 八双, 雙双, 八宗. Can also be called hyōmoku 表木 when referring to hanging scrolls *…

An abbreviation for Yoshitsune hassōtobi 義経八艘飛 or Yoshitsune's Leap over Eight Boats, one of the many…

Ch: pomo. Lit. splashed ink. An ink painting *suibokuga 水墨画…

A pictorial subject taken from "The First Warbler" or more literally "The First Song," Chapter 23 of Genji monogatari…

Lit. paintings of Heike. The usual abbreviation of Heike monogatari-e 平家物語絵, illustrations of famous incidents…

Lit. wall painting or mural.

1　A generic term applied to all the paintings related to…

1　Also called *gaku 額. A tablet or board, framed or unframed, on…

Also called zanzan jōsui 残山剰水 (Ch: canshan shengshui) or left-over mountains and remaining water. A compositional…

Ch: bianxiang. Also called hen 変 (Ch: bian) or kyōhen 経変 (Ch: jingbian). Transformation scenes, tableaux,…

Also known as Hie 日吉 (can be read Hiyoshi) matsuri 祭 or Sannō matsuri 山王祭. A pictorial…

A woodblock printed advertisement used to announce a store, publicize a product, or advertise a new publication. In the…

Also read hikime kagibana and written 引目鈎鼻. Lit. slit eyes, hooked nose. A technique used to draw faces of the…

Lit. hemp-fiber texture stroke; a type of brushstroke, so called because it resembles a loose hemp thread. A texture brush…

Also pronounced hiinagata bon. Lit. miniature stamped book. A small-sized woodblock printed book produced during…

The manor of using a painting brush in Eastern art and calligraphy. Brush use technique was first mentioned by Xie He (Jp:…

A technique used to apply color evenly over an underpainting, without regard for lines. If the overcoat is opaque the under…

1　Also hishigata 菱形. A diamond or lozenge shape. A term used to describe diamond-shaped cross…

1　 Diamond- or lozenge-shaped lattice or muntins used on doors, transoms, and fences *…

A diamond or lozenge-shaped motif that is a type of traditional design motif *…

Also Hitomaru-zō 人丸像. An imaginary portrait of the Nara period poet Kakinomotono Hitomaro 柿本人麿, who is…