haku　箔

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Lit. foil or leaf. Gold, silver, copper, tin or brass pounded into a thin flat sheet and used for the decoration of art works and craft objects. Gold kinpaku 金箔 and silver ginpaku 銀箔 were most frequently used. A thin block of metal is wrapped in leather or *washi 和紙 (Japanese paper) and pounded with a wooden or bamboo mallet until it is about 1/10,000 of 1mm in thickness (the Heian/Kamakura examples are thicker). The sheets are then cut into approximately 10cm-squares. Most metal foils are made in Kyoto and Kanazawa 金沢. The technique of affixing gold foil to the surface of an object with lacquer or glue *nikawa 膠 is called kinpakuoshi 金箔押. The earliest known example of haku in Japan is found on the wall painting of Takamatsuzuka 高松塚 tomb (late 7c-early 8c). During the Nara and Heian periods, gold and silver foil were frequently used as decoration on Buddhist paintings and sculptures, as well as on writing paper. In a technique called *shippaku 漆箔 (gold/silver foil) was pressed on top of lacquer applied to wood or to dry lacquer *kanshitsu 乾漆 sculpture. Foil cut into small pieces was used to make exquisite designs on the garments of Buddhist deities *kirikane 切金 and also sprinkled over the surface of writing papers for decoration *kirihaku 切箔. Sometimes foil was applied to the back of a painting to produce a soft, lustrous sheen on the metal ornaments held by Buddhist deities *urahaku 裏箔. From the Muromachi period, gold foil, which was favoured by the shoguns, was amply used for extravagant architectural decoration, such as Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's 足利義満 (1358-1408) Rokuonji Kinkaku 鹿苑寺金閣 (1397) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 豊臣秀吉 (1536-98) Kin no chashitsu 金の茶室. Gold foil also was used extensively for interior decoration, and the gold background *kinji 金地 of paintings on screens and sliding doors *kinpeki shouhekiga 金碧障壁画. Gold/silver foil is also frequently used to decorate craft objects. It is affixed to lacquerware haku-e 箔絵 and pressed onto textiles. Generally gold and silver foil is applied inkin 印金 with glue or lacquer, however, during the Momoyama period, a variation of this technique using rice paste as a bonding agent became popular (*surihaku 摺箔; with embroidery, it is called nuihaku 繍箔).

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