sunago　砂子

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

A type of foil (*kirihaku 切箔), usually gold or silver, cut so finely that the pieces are as minute as grains of sand (suna 砂). It is then sprinkled from a bamboo cylinder with small holes at the bottom over a thin layer of glue (*nikawa 膠) or lacquer which has been brushed across the areas to be decorated. Since the late Heian period (12c), paintings, lacquerware and sutra or writing papers have been decorated with sunago, which produces a soft but rich effect. The famous "Heike noukyou 平家納経" sutra is a fine example of this technique and other types of cut-foil application. In paintings sunago is used in place of pigments to represent ground or mist as well as to suggest empty space.

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