Lit. longevity screen. Type of folding screen made for celebrations of longevity, ga 賀. They were embellished with…

A pictorial work or works that appear within a painting as part of the overall composition. The best example being the *…

Lit. Vajra on the Way of Painting, Nakabayashi Chikutō's 中林竹洞 (1776-1853) reactionary critique of contemporary…

Lit. Secret Principles on the Way of Painting, a late 17th-century discourse on painting *…

Ch: huapu. Lit. Painting primers, often illustrated books explaining the canon of painting production or appreciation. In…

Lit. Summary of Painting Laws, the first Japanese theoretical text on Western painting. Published in 1778, the text…

Lit. Painting Laws: Methods of Coloring, a mid-18th-century painting manual edited by Sugaodō Yūsashi 菅生堂祐佐子…

An album of paintings. Small-size paintings, sketches, or drawings are either pasted or directly drawn on the pages of an…

Chinese term for a painting on a handscroll. The Japanese term *emaki 絵巻 has the…

Silk used for painting. Same as *eginu 絵絹.

Also read Gakō benran. Lit. Handbook on Painters, a late 17th-century history of Japanese painting…

A modern term for drafts and other preparatory drawings used for making a painting. Includes *…

Lit. Deep Probes into the Skill of Paintings. A mid-18th-century six-volume history of the *…

A tablet, plaque, or framed picture. The oldest form, dating back to the Nara period, is the wooden plaque *…

Ch: Hama Tiegue. Two Taoist immortals frequently paired in Chinese and Japanese painting. Gama 蝦蟇 (Ch: Hama), also…

Formerly called hishi 斐紙. Paper made from the fiber of the ganpi plant (Diplomorpha sikokiana honda or…

1　Pigment. Powdered colors used in oriental painting. Insoluble in water and most other liquid media.…

A fake or forgery. To produce a likeness of another painting with intent to deceive. Generally the forger is careful to use…

Glass painting. Oil or thick pigments are mixed with glue and applied to the reverse sides of glass plates, to be viewed…

Ch: hualun. Discourses on Painting. Writings on painting theory, criticism, principles or classification, also including…

A kind of poetic inscription, added to a blank area above or next to a completed painting. Typically, this inscription gives…

Net of Paintings, an early 18th-century introductory text on the study of painting by Hayashi Moriatsu 林守篤 (fl. early 18th…

Also written 画箋紙 or abbreviated to gasen, written 画箋, 画牋, or 雅宣. A paper of Chinese origin, xuanzhi (Jp:…

Monks who produced paintings of Buddhist subjects to accumulate religious or spiritual merit. Gasō refers to those…

Principles of Painting. A mid-18th-century five-volume treatise on painting by Sakurai Sekkan 桜井雪館 (1715-90). An ally of the…

Lit. Worthless Discussion of Painting. A late 18th-century three-volume treatise on painting by sinophile, Southern…

Also hyōdai 表題. The title daimoku 題目 of a literary work or painting. It is written on the outer cover of a…

Ch: Yan Ziling. A scholar-recluse of the later Han period, who was a childhood friend of Emperor Guangwu (Jp: Kōbu 光武, AD 4-…

Pictorial representations whose subject matter comes from Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of Genji). Either a…

Also kō-no-zu 香の図. A geometrical design pattern originally symbolizing combinations of incense fragrances. The…

Also called hakuraku utsushi 剥落写し. Lit. a copy of the exfoliated state of a painting. An exact copy of the present-…

Ch: jianbi. Often genpitsubyō 減筆描. Also ryakuhitsu 略筆. Lit. abbreviated brush drawing. An…

Also known as Minghuang (Jp: Meikō 明皇). Ch: Xuanzong (685-762). The sixth emperor of the Tang dynasty, well-known for his…

Humorous or satiric paintings, or sketches or drawings done in fun. Typically, giga have human and animal figures…

An annual festival at Yasaka Jinja 八坂神社 and surrounding area of Kyoto, and a popular subject of Japanese genre painting *…

The technique of scattering drops of shell white *gofun 胡粉 onto a finished…

1　A white pigment *ganryō 顔料, used in Japan from the Muromachi…

The white pigment used for the white face powder of figures in a woodblock print *ukiyo-…

Lit. combining volumes. Long, complicated revenge stories which required two, three, or up to ten booklets, that were sewn…

Bright, strong color applied in layers to a painting, Buddhist image or architectural structure. The technique involves…

Also gomazuki ごまずき. A woodblock print *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 technique whereby a…

Lit. five seasonal festivals. A popular pictorial theme in Edo period art. The five Chinese-inspired festivals are: …

An *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 subject depicting ladies and noblemen in formal attire, which…

Imperial carts. Ox carriages used by the emperor and empress, or aristocrats. Gosho 御所, meaning the Imperial Palace…

Painters who were given a salary in the service of the shogunate or daimyō 大名. Although the Imperial Court and…

White pigment *ganryō 顔料 including shell lime *…

Applying an undercoat to paper to be used for painting. The undercoat consists of a thin solution of animal glue *…

A light-colored, opaque pigment *ganryō 顔料 made by mixing white pigment such as…

Lit. pictures of herds of horses. One of several horse themes popular in 16th- and 17th-century screen painting. Unlike…

Also *iwa-gunjō 岩群青. A blue pigment made from pulverized azurite, randōkō…

Also written 呉利, and pronounced gori or gurin. A design of stylized bracken-leaf shapes forming repeated…

Ch: Judiyizhi. A 9th-century Chinese Zen monk famous for his one-finger isshi Zen. According to the Wumenguan…

An opaque, dark grey pigment *ganryō 顔料 made by mixing black carbon ink *…

Lit. inverted perspective. A visual technique sometimes employed in Chinese and Japanese painting. While the Western…

Also written 仰覆蓮華. A type of lotus flower design pattern *rengemon 蓮華文. The…

Ch: yuqiao wenda. A pictorial theme of a philosophical dialogue between a fisherman and a woodcutter. The origin of…

Also written 内隈. Lit. "interior shading." A technique *kumadori 隈取 in non-…

Also written 内曇. Also called kumogami 雲紙. Abbreviation of uchigumorigami 打曇紙. A type of decorated paper,…

Lit. "fan painting." A painting either directly on a fan *uchiwa 団扇, or on a round format…

Also read dansen. A round or oval fan made of paper or silk pasted over a framework of thin strips of bamboo.…

A modern city in the southern part of Kyoto where the Byōdōin 平等院 (1052) is located. Historically, Uji was a resort for the…

A visual motif in the *yamato-e やまと絵 tradition, depicting the…

Lit. "Battles of the Uji 宇治 River." Two dramatic and decisive battles that took place near the Uji bridge, over the river,…

A small-sized preliminary sketch undertaken by an artist expressly at the request of a patron. These sketches may be…

Also written 有気絵. Woodblock prints or paintings *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 produced for an individual…

Lit. "floating picture." Usually a woodblock print, in which the three-dimensionality of a scene is emphasized by using one…

A pictorial subject taken from "Ukifune" ("A Boat upon the Waters"), Chapter 51 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The…

Lit. "pictures of the floating world." Paintings and woodblock prints of genre themes developed from the mid-Edo to early…

Currents of Thought on Ukiyo-e, a series of biographies of *ukiyo-e …

Lit. "books of the floating world." Printed books containing illustrated prose stories which developed from the Kamigata…

Marigold, saffron yellow. A bright yellow dye taken from the root stalk of the turmeric plant (Curcuma longa).…

Paintings of horses on pairs of folding screen *byōbu 屏風. Beginning in the Heian…

A standing screen *tsuitate shōji 衝立障子 decorated with horses that was…

Also keima-zu 繋馬図. Paintings of horses tethered in a stable. Although the subject is found in a 13th-century…

A pictorial subject based on "Umegae" ("A Branch of Plum"), Chapter 32 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of…

Also written 暈繝. Also *ungen zaishiki 繧繝彩色, lit. "rainbow coloring." A…

Also written 暈繝彩色. A method of coloring used in painting as well as for decorative motifs in crafts and architecture. Also…

1　Chinese: yunqiwen.
An ancient Chinese decorative design formed from C and S shapes. It is…

School of painters, founded by the 16th-century artist Unkoku Tōgan 雲谷等顔 (1547-1618), who considered themselves to be in the…

Lit. "cloud design." A broad classification of the various designs used to represent clouds. It is known throughout Asia,…

A painting technique used to apply metal foil *haku 箔 to the back…

The hero and title of an ancient tale of a fisherman and his magical journey to a palace beneath the sea. The details vary,…

A technique used to line or back a piece of paper or fabric. Generally, a strong piece of Japanese paper *…

A technique used to apply color to the reverse side of a painting. Pigments applied to the back of one part of a painting to…

1　Painting done with colored lacquer iro-urushi 彩漆, made by mixing pigments in a base of…

A pictorial subject taken from "Usugumo" ("A Rack of Clouds"), Chapter 19 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The Tale of…

1　Also written 薄葉. An extremely thin piece of paper, usually *…

A series of paintings, usually in handscroll format, arranged as if in a poetry contest uta-awase 歌合, where poems…

Lit. "poem-painting."

1　A painting which illustrates the setting described in a Japanese poem, …

Lit. "singing nuns." A type of mid-Edo period prostitute who dressed to resemble Buddhist nuns bikuni and chanted…

Lit. "Utagawa school." The most prolific school of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists in the late Edo…

A hill on the border between the Abe 安部 and Shida 志太 districts of Suruga 駿河 Province (present day Shizuoka Prefecture). A…

A pictorial subject based on "Utsusemi" ("The Shell of the Locust"), Chapter 3 of Genji monogatari 源氏物語 (The…

A simplification or change in the form of a painting which may occur during the copying process. When the shape or position…

1　Also shiagenuri 仕上げ塗. The final layer applied to a decorative painting sōshoku kōji…